Great White Of The North
by Coolness121
Summary: With the Earth Kingdom on its last legs with the fall of Ba Sing Se, it's the avatar's job to restore order. But an ancient pure evil is on the rise. It threatens to engulf the entire world in its image, and the avatar isn't enough this time around. Others will be needed this time...but even they might not be enough for what is coming. Rated M due to language and violence. AU.
1. Chapter 1

I don't own anything from the Naruto and A:TLA franchises, the characters, weapons, etc., that I use, that aren't OC, all belong to their respective awesome creators.

"I hope you have more than that boy."-Speech

_I really don't like where this is going- Thoughts_

* * *

The Northern Water Tribe.

The last major city in the nations that was free, and the last bastion of hope for any refugees of the war that had suddenly taken a turn for the worst. The war had been going on for a long while as a result of the brazen and absolutely monstrous genocide of the peaceful Air benders. This mass murder of the air benders shook the foundations of every nation, and marked the beginning of the Fire Nation rise of power. After the genocide the Fire Nation lied low until the year 15 A.G., where the Fire Nation navy attempted to attack the Northern Water Tribe and penetrate the thick frigid walls that surrounded their city.

Based on old records the siege, if one could call it that, lasted for less than a week. Less than a few days really, and has been known to be the most embarrassing moment in Fire Nation history. The Fire Nation had gotten arrogant and cocky, and came in with the intentions of it being an easy conquest like the air benders were.

But they couldn't have been more wrong.

The marines of the Fire Nation fought as bravely as they could, and even managed to push back the ambush with their superior weaponry and armor. They forced the enemy forces into a retreat, and continued to push them back until they reached the city hall.

From there the Fire Nation was utterly crushed.

Lured into a false sense of victory, the Fire Nation soldiers were caught off guard as literally thousands of men blasted out of the doors of the main hall with burning glares and painted faces, and surged towards the enemy who dared to step foot in their home. It didn't stop there, as from the alley ways and out from under the snow came the deadly water benders who cleaved a bloody fissure through the Fire Nation forces. It didn't take any time for the men of the Fire Nation to route, and for the north to claim victory on that day. They sent the growing power of the Fire Nation running with their tail between their legs, and the feeling couldn't be any sweeter.

As the story wraps up, the chief gathered all of his chieftains, and brought them to his personal prayer ground to thank the Water and Ocean spirits for blessing them with the strength to overcome their foe. It has been clouded in a cloak of mystery for some time, as to what happened in there because the chief and his chieftains had sworn to secrecy to not divulge any of what happened there to anyone but their successors. But what everyone does know is that for a minute the city was abruptly bathed in a light blue, almost white, radiant glow that grabbed everyone's attention. People to this day claim that the light came from the grounds the chief and his chieftains were in, but no one really knows. Some even swear on their very lives that they saw two figures floating within the beam, but hat one sounded even more ridiculous so it wasn't believed. All they knew was that, from then on, those grounds were pronounced sacred and off limits to anyone without permission or the authority. When asked why, the chief didn't answer, but told everybody what to call it from now on.

He said to call it the Spirit Oasis.

Arnook shook himself from hit musing, and idly wondered as to why he remembered that specific tale his father used to tell him. The thought immediately left his mind as a smile warped its way onto his aging face, and he was brought back to reality. The celebration was in full swing, and looked like it had no plans to stop until well into the night, but Arnook personally had no problems with that. He needed a day of leisure, and this couldn't have happened at a better time. Not only was he getting a free day, but the Avatar had finally returned. After Chief Arnook looked across the happy faces of his people and saw a new sense of hope in their eyes.

The avatar has been found!

Everyone was excited and filled with a new sense of hope, even the refugees from the Earth Kingdom. After almost a hundred years, the avatar was here to restore peace to the lands. As Arnook sipped his drink with a small smile on his face, he couldn't help but wince at how the entire world was banking on a 14 year old kid to fix everything. When he thought deeply about it, it honestly did sound ridiculous, but who was he to try and change the tens of thousands of years the avatar cycle has been around? He had enough worries with keeping the north up and running. Not to mention that arrogant prick who thought that he was entitled to his daughter. _Pfft, if I wasn't chief that kid would have already been missing a few teeth. _

He set his drink down on the arm rest of his luxurious chair, and watched his daughter interact with the kids of their sister village, more specifically the boy. He apparently was just in time to see his daughter break down into a fit of giggles that made Arnook's heart soar, and put a dopey smile on the boy's face. Sokka, he believed his name was.

The boy looked to be a warrior if the weapons at his side and his physique were anything to go by. His body was athletic, but not overly buff like some men chose to be, but it seemed to be built more for speed than strength. That wasn't what caught Arnook's interest about this boy though. It was the way he held himself as he walked in and was introduced. Arnook himself knew what came with training to be a warrior, and saw the way the boy held himself. He was calm, composed, and had a sense of self-confidence that bolstered that feeling of strength that came from him.

If he wasn't already locked in a betrothal contract with another family, Arnook would think about having his Yue marry this young man. She seemed to be absolutely loving his company, and he couldn't remember ever seeing her smile in such a manner with any boy. Sokka seemed to reciprocate those feelings, as Arnook saw his mouth move and Yue break down in a fit of melodious laughter. The way his eyes moved and that smile he got his face told Arnook the whole story.

He wouldn't interfere with their budding feelings, as they were both growing up in a time filled with strife and conflict, and they needed this moment of reprieve before everything became too serious again. This was also a test to see how their hearts hold up against emotional blows. He knew Yue was going to have to eventually tell the boy she was already promised to another, and Arnook was saddened at the thought of his baby girl going through something as heart breaking as that.

Swinging his eyes off of the young couple, that seemed to just click the instant they met, Arnook decided to survey the avatar and the young girl. Katara, he believed was the name she introduced herself with. Arnook already knew she was a water bender, He didn't need to be shown that she was or be told. He knew a water bender when he saw one. Specifically a healer, if he was being correct in his assumptions, but he saw that healing wasn't going to fit her at all down the road. _Maybe I can set her up with her._ He entertained the thought for a second before decided that she wouldn't even take the job if he asked her. She was stubborn like that, and she got it from her best friend.

Anyways, Arnook, after a few minutes of surveying the avatar and the girl, came to a conclusion. The conclusion that the boy was too young. Being only 14 and having the weight of the world set on your shoulder was something that was fit for someone more experienced. A veteran if you will, but not a 14 going on 15 year old. Arnook did not feel comfortable putting the fate of the world into his hands. Maybe in the future, when the boy grew up, but he knew they didn't have that kind of time. Since the avatar was as famous as he was infamous, word would spread of his existence like wild fire through out the rumor mill, and he was going to have a big target on his back.

Arnook knew what the avatar came here for, and decided that now was as good of a time as any to get him rolling in the right direction.

He hauled himself out of his seat and began his way over to the brightly colored keeper of balance and peace. He got closer and saw that the girl noticed him first, and tapped on the boys shoulder to get him to realize that same thing.

Arnook saw the avatar's dark eyes widen, and Arnook saw the innocence in them immediately. That just cemented his opinion of the avatar two fold. His opinions aside, Arnook addressed the avatar.

"Ah, young Aang I believe it was?" He got a nod yes," Yes well, how are you enjoying the celebration?"

A smile of delight blossomed on Aang's face," It's great! When I was growing up we never had parties like this, and to actually experience one is amazing." He said.

The chief smiled at the young man's youthful energy, somewhere a young man shivered as the color green and big eyebrows flashed through his mind. Arnook continued with a kind smile on his face," That's great to hear Aang, and I almost sorry to take you from a party you are very much enjoying, but I believe now is as good as a time as any for you to meet the man who will be teaching you water bending for the duration of your stay here."

That particular revelation shot Aang's excitement up tenfold. He was going to begin his first few steps of becoming a fully recognized avatar. Before the 'incident', as he called it, he was beginning to grasp some of the basic principle of water bending of the old scrolls that were scattered around the temple. He immediately caged in his excitement, and calmed his jets like the monks taught him. It wouldn't do any good to come off to his new teacher as a fool.

He calmly nodded his head, and got out of his seat to begin following Arnook outside. He bid a, "see you later" to Katara and almost blushed at the blindingly beautiful smile she flashed him. If it wasn't for his monk training he swore he would've been a blushing mess. He didn't bother saying a farewell to Sokka, as he looked to be busy making faces with utensils stuck in his ears and nose at the pretty girl with white hair. Aang didn't know why but he felt a slight twinge flash through his brain whenever he looked at her and her unusual pearly white hair. So he walked out hearing the laughter Sokka was caused with his struggles to get the fork he stuck up his nose out.

"…it out! Get it out! Ahhh! That hurts Katara!" He hollered with tears welling up in his eyes. Sticking the fork his nose seemed like such a good idea a few seconds ago, but now…

"Oh, stop being a big baby and hold still for a second do I can yank it out!" Katara grunted out as she comically pulled at the fork stuck in her brother's nose. I mean seriously, what was he, five? Here she was, like always, fixing a mess he made. A mischievous thought passed through her mind, as a form of revenge. She cackled evilly in her mind to herself because he never told her to be gentle.

….

"**AHHHH!**"

The fork was released from the confines of Sokka's nostrils and Katara immediately dropped the fork in disgust. She shook her hand out and looked back to her brother, "There it's out. Now stop crying and get back to making googly eyes at your little girlfriend."

"Oh you're just mad that Aang isn't here for you to do the same thing," He shot back nasally as his nose throbbed a painful red color

Her face grew beet red, "Shut up Sokka!"

The smug look on his face persisted until he sat back down next to Yue. Sokka couldn't quite comprehend it, but this beautiful girl was somehow forming a place inside of his heart. She was all he wanted in a girl and then some. He didn't know how he got so luck, or if he would ever get luckier again in his life.

Somewhere on a distant island a girl wearing face paint practicing with fans sneezed. She idly wondered if she was getting sick before practicing her katas once more.

He sadly sighed to himself in his head, as he realized that the only girl he might ever potentially come to realize as a girlfriend, wouldn't be possible. No, it wasn't because of his looks. If Sokka let his pride loose a bit, he'd say he was a better looking young man than the average, but he didn't particularly care about how he looked like other boys did. His father entrusted him with the safety of his people, and that sort of responsibility didn't make such space for anything else.

The problem was the betrothal necklace he caught her try to stuff down her jacket collar when he sat down next to her. From that he figured that she most likely didn't want to him to be put off by the fact she was promised to someone else, so he just smiled and pretended like he didn't see it. _It seems as if I made the right choice too. _He looked at that smile that he wasn't going to forget anytime soon, and brought himself out of his inner musings to talk to her some more.

A couple of hours passed by and Katara yawned wide. The party was dying down, and she was getting bored. It didn't help that there were a few young men that tried to get her attention or her favor. _Honestly, after the first five failed what makes you think you had a chance? _She couldn't answer that question as she didn't understand the inner workings of the boy mind, and accepted the fact that she wasn't going to anytime soon. She wanted to get out of there and go to sleep.

Katara got up and walked over to her brother, who was continuously talking to the admittedly pretty looking white haired girl," Sokka let's go. It's getting late and I want to make it to our rooms before midnight." She told him.

Sokka looked at his sister, ready to complain and counter her, but the hand on her hip and the look in her eye that dared him to, stopped whatever he was going to say cold. He shook of his stupor and felt the fatigue swathe through his bones, and he suddenly felt tired. _Hmm, I guess talking to Yue really took my mind off of things. _He got up from his seat and stretched his back, hearing a few satisfying pops happen. He groaned in pleasure, and looked back to his sister.

"Okay, let's go then Katara we both know you need your beauty sleep," He joked with a sly smile on his face. He didn't give her time to response as he immediately turned toward Yue and asked her," Can we hang out again sometime?"

Yue giggled a bit at the hopeful look in his eyes, and felt a twang of guilt pocket through her heart at her leading him on. She knew she really should deny him his request, but he was just so cute, and charming, and funny, and cute… She mentally shook the thoughts of her being wrapped in those warm arm… _Okay I need to stop_. Still though, look at his adorable brown eyes, she just couldn't find it in her heart to tell him no. So, she didn't.

Again the twinge of guilt dredged itself up from whatever pit it resided in, and Yue felt bad for tricking such a nice boy like this. She settled for nodding her head with a reserved smile before giggling again at his comical shout of joy.

"YES…" He looked around at the suddenly quiet room, and saw that all the eyes were on him. He rapidly tried to compose himself," Uh, I mean that is acceptable, and I look forward to it. Have a nice night."

He rushed out the last part out of embarrassment, and rushed out of the door, tripping on a chair on his way out. He landed with an OOF and a groan. Realizing his embarrassing predicament he hastily hauled himself up, and was out of the door in a flash.

Katara, who watched it all, just followed after her clumsy brother while laughing. She waved goodbye to Yue, who reciprocated the action with a smile, and left the building in a much more composed manner than her brother.

Outside of the door is where she caught him, and he was banging his head against a wall while muttering to himself.

"…upid, stupid, stupid," He repeated.

Katara curtailed her laughing for a minute to ty and get him to stop before his head pounded a hole in the wall," You're over reacting Sokka. It wasn't that embarrassing," She saw the, "I don't believe you for a minute look on his face, and just couldn't take it anymore. She crumbled and broke out in laughter. She knew he was going to get her back for laughing at him, but she just couldn't hold it in anymore.

Her laughter persisted for a few minutes before Sokka got sick of it, and began walking to their temporary resting spot, leaving his still laughing sister behind.

"It wasn't even that funny Katara. You've seen me trip plenty of times before," He called back to her as he continued walking. He rounded the corner, but suddenly stopped when he rounded the corner. He took two steps back before settling he began to think hard.

Katara stopped laughing long enough, she actually had to take a deep breath less she go unconscious from oxygen deprivation, to see her brother thinking, and apparently hard by the looks of it. She eased out the last few giggles she had, and jogged over to her thinking brother.

"Haha, why'd you stop Sokka? The moon is almost fully in the sky, and I want to go to sleep," she relayed to her brother.

Sokka took a moment to answer," Katara, do you actually know where we're staying for the night?" He asked.

It took Katara a tick to realize what her brother was implying, "No, I don't. I thought you knew where it was," She told him.

The siblings exchanged a look before they gained tiny storm clouds over their heads. They didn't know where they were sleeping, and everyone who probably did know was sleep now.

Sokka sighed and a glum look appeared on his face at the fatigue that enveloped his entire being. A sigh was released a moment after, and he wearily rubbed the side of his head and spoke up," We we're going to have to try and find it somehow," He looked around and his shoulders sagged," I guess we're gonna have to walk around and look."

At this Katara groaned angrily and began to stomp forward without paying attention. Sokka wearily looked on at his angry little sister, and almost decided that sleeping right there would be safer for him than walking with her in her current state.

"UGH, well let's go Sokka. We don't have all day, and I want to go to sleep!" She raised her voice and swiftly turned to her brother, pointing a finger at him," This is your fault."

Sokka was bewildered at his sister's angry claim," H-how is this my fault?"

Katara was seeing red right now, mostly because of the lack of sleep on her part, and continued on her claim," Because, romeo, if you weren't so _busy_ making googly eyes at Yue, you would've realized that you didn't know where we were going to sleep tonight!"

That was utter blasphemy! To Sokka that made no sense, and tried to make her see that," So? You weren't doing anything once Aang left, so why didn't you find out?" He pointed out.

Katara was quick with her rebuttal, "Because that is your job, not mine."

Sokka was ready to respond again, but Katara didn't let him, as she began walking away muttering angrily to herself. Sokka sighed stressfully, shaking his head, before following his agitated sister at a safe distance.

They began walking, trudging really, and ready to keel over at any moment. With their tired states, the two siblings from the Southern Water Tribe did not notice that someone else was also making their way around the corner. As a result, Katara, since she was in the front, collided with the chest of the man who was coming from the opposite way. It was a one-sided collision, due to the size difference, and Katara was sent to the ground with an OOF.

Sokka rushed to his downed and dazed sister, and helped her back to her feet.

Katara was rubbing her head in an effort to ease the pain and spoke up," Dang it Sokka, why didn't you tell me there was a wall in my way."

When her bother didn't answer immediately, she looked back to him, and saw the amazed expression he had on his face and hesitated in turning to see what he was staring at. She turned and was greeted with a chiseled chest covered in a dark blue shirt. With a minor blush on her face, her eyes rose the length of the muscular chest to meet the eyes of the man she ran into, and was stuck like her brother.

The man leaned down with an utterly terrifying smile, terrifying to Sokka and Katara, and spoke up in a masculine voice," Because I'm not a wall little girl."

* * *

This is the updated chapter 1. It is a complete revamp of the first chapter, which I did on my phone by the way (as I look back I don't realize why), and I believe it is a complete 180 turn in quality and word count. No worries, a new chapter will be posted soon, and so will a revamp of a few more chapters. I feel that the starting wasn't as good as it could be, and is part of the reason I don't have that many views. To the amount of you that were able to get past the sub par introduction, I thank you, and hope that I am living up to your expectations. I will change some things in other chapters as well, but they won't be drastic changes. Mostly dialogue, characterization, and descriptive language. Oh, and plus a better overview of what has been going on in my AU. This is Coolness121, and I bid you a farewell.


	2. Chapter 2:Kisame

Back here once again for the second chapter of G.W.O.T.N and I would just like to thank all of the few that reviewed, followed, and favorite. You guys (maybe gals), are awesome and I thank you from the bottom of my heart. To answer some review questions in general yes Samehada will have that ability, but since Kisame is younger and grew up in a different environment expect a slightly different, but still the same, Kisame. He won't like automatically wreck people, it's going to be a process. I won't be adding other Naruto characters either, I will though be making references to them. Mostly the Akatsuki. I also increased the power of some of the Avatar characters to give Kisame more of a challenge and make it more exciting, as you will notice in this chapter. This chapter doesn't have any action that's all gonna be next chapter. So without further ado ...Ch.2:Kisame...oh and expect some...changes in a few Avatar characters.

* * *

"Give me a good fight!"-speech

_"What does this sword do exactly?"_-thoughts

*I don't own anything in this fanfiction from Naruto or Avatar the last Airbender*

* * *

30 minutes earlier

Kisame was just getting finished with his daily training session. Ever since he started it the Arnook had him do it away from everyone else, he said it was too 'dangerous', and someone could get 'hurt'.

"Huh"Kisame grunted to himself,"not my fault he thinks my training is extreme."

Kisame wanted to be strong, he wanted to be the shark in a pond of fish.

He continued walking across the frozen walkways of the northern water tribe, and could admit that after living here for 18 years he could call this icy place home. Only problem was that there was no one good left to fight here since he defeated master Pakku. After he defeated Pakku he was unofficially declared the strongest waterbender in the northern water tribe. Unofficially because Arnook didn't want anyone getting hurt if they challenged Kisame.

A good thing Kisame discovered while training is that his offensive waterbending techniques came out oddly shaped like sharks. It made sense because after he somehow was able to understand all types of marine life.

Especially sharks.

When he told Arnook, he said it made him 'special' and mumbled something about the spirit oasis. Another thing, even after living here for so long, Arnook and master Pakku were the only ones that didn't stare at his face or at him in general. All the healers couldn't figure out why he was physically different than most water tribesmen, but Kisame didn't too much care. The stares weren't offensive, but they got annoying after awhile. He didn't know why he was like this. All he knew, what he was told, was that Arnook found him as a baby by the spirit oasis a 2 years before his own daughter was born.

Anyways his current 'job' was escorting the avatar and his friends to the place they'll be staying for the duration of their stay.

"_The avatar_," Kisame thought to himself," _They expect a child to bring peace to the world?"_

An actual child who hasn't even completed puberty. Kisame saw the avatar when he flew in on his sky bison and was less than impressed. If that was supposed to be the person to bring peace to the world, he had his doubts. He wouldn't underestimate what the child could do, no. He made that mistake with thinking since master Pakku was an old man he would hardly be a challenge and boy was he wrong. Kisame winced in the memory of the ass whooping that took place that day. Kisame stopped his thoughts on the avatar as he was nearing the palace and needed to find the kids.

It was easy enough as they were already outside. Kisame saw the two southerners conversing with each other. Kisame stopped walking and stood there waiting for them to acknowledge his presence, but they kept on walking. Not paying attention.

Kisame decided he would have a little fun with these kids and frighten them a little. Kisame heard he was a scary person and he wanted to test it.

He stepped into the path of the girl and waited for the inevitable contact.

"Ugh," The girl grunted in pain. She stumbled back, rubbing the area she hit in an effort to get rid of the pain, "Sokka, why didn't you warn me of that wall?"

"Showtime," Kisame thought.

"Cuz I'm not a wall," he said.

The girl quickly seized up and looked towards the boy, possibly her brother since there was some resemblance, and saw him gaping at the 'wall' that she ran into.

She turned wide eyed to Kisame and almost jumped back in shock.

"Hello," Kisame grinned his sharp grin down at her," would you mind apologizing for running into me." He suggested.

The boy just started stuttering and the girl soon joined him.

"S-s-sorry uh sir for bumping into you," she finally stuttered out.

Kisame stared at her with his beady black eyes, vicious smile still on his face, and said," No problem. You might want to tell your brother there to close his mouth before his tongue gets frostbite." He chuckled indicating to her gaping brother.

The girl turned towards her brother,"Sokka! Stop staring it's rude." She admonished.

The boy, Sokka, was quick to snap his mouth shut and stand a little straighter. Kisame never quite understood how females held power over the stronger male species, you would never see that happening to him.

"Katara, b-but he's blue!" The boy defended.

Ahh, of course that's what it was. Kisame dropped his smile and it turned into a frown of annoyance. He turned towards Sokka and narrowed his eyes in an intimidating fashion.

"And what's the problem with me being blue, huh boy?" Kisame questioned, looking down at Sokka.

This caused Sokka to take a step back in fear. He started stuttering again not knowing what to say.

The girl, Katara, cut in,"N-nothings w-wrong with being blue." She looked towards the boy and gritted out," Right Sokka?"

Sokka, still tongue tied just nodded his head in an effort to save himself.

Kisame just hmm'd at the nod and stopped glaring before the boy passed out in fear. Kisame's glare has been know to do that.

"So are you two the southerners that came with the avatar?" Kisame inquired.

Kisame already knew the answer but he wanted to confirm it.

The girl, who seemed to be the brains of the duo answered, "Yea, we are. We were just looking for the place we will be resting at."

Sokka just nodded again at this.

"Oh well you're in luck," the same smile appeared on Kisame's face," Arnook tasked me with showing you just where you will be staying."

They both just nodded, the boy still thoroughly frightened and the girl doing a good job at hiding her own.

Kisame turned around and indicated for them to follow," Come on then, I trust you're tired so don't waste mine or your time. I once heard time was money."

Weird guy that was, merchant from the earth kingdom or something. Greedy bastard he was.

Kisame started walking and as he expected they were hesitant to follow.

He looked over his shoulder and smiled a, to him, innocent smile,"Come on. Don't worry, I don't bite."

He continued walking, doesn't matter if they followed him or not, he didn't even want to do this in the first place.

With his trained ears he heard the boy whisper asked,"Katara should we really follow him? He is kinda strange."

Katara whispered back,"Well we have to if we want to find the place we will be sleeping. And don't stare it's rude."

Sokka just nodded and mumbled," Okay."

They looked to where Kisame was and noticed he was far ahead of them. They had to jog to catch up to him. Once they got in a respectful following distance an awkward silence seemed to settle onto them.

Kisame knew they both had questions and wanted to ask, but were afraid of his reaction. Kisame just waited until one of them grew a big enough backbone to ask him.

"Sorry, again for walking into you uh mister...?" She apologized.

Kisame was surprised she didn't immediately ask about his skin or face, that's what most people did.

"Don't worry about it kid," Kisame waved off," And it's not mister or sir. It's just Kisame. Call me Kisame."

Katara nodded her head at the new information and the silence returned.

Sokka's curiosity got the better of his fear and he asked,"Are you one of the warriors of the northern water tribe?"

Why does this kid want to know that, Kisame thought.

"Why do you want to know? You hardly look like the warrior type." Kisame questioned back.

"Hey!" Sokka yelled at the insult to his warrior-ness,"I'll have you know I am one of the best warriors back in my village!"

Kisame stopped walking and turned towards the boy.

He looked him over, getting a gauge of his skills. All it took was a quick once over and Kisame could tell just where this kid was lacking.

"Mediocre," Kisame said and turned around.

It took a second for Sokka to process what he heard. His face turned furious at the fact he had just been called mediocre.

"Mediocre!?"He hollered.

"Yea you're mediocre. I can tell by the way walk, the way you look, and most importantly the way your hands look."

"My hands?" Sokka looked down at his hands trying to find just exactly what he was talking about.

Kisame suddenly stopped and the duo almost ran into his back at the sudden stop in movement.

"Here we are, the place you'll be resting for the duration of your stay in the northern water tribe." Kisame informed the two.

They looked over the building and it looked like the generic northern water tribe homes, but was bigger than what they were used to.

Their attention was brought back to Kisame as he started speaking," And yes your hands kid," Kisame held his hands out, giving them a look. Old and new scars littered his hands, some going as far down as his forearm.

"Kid, until you get hands like these. Hands that show just how hard you worked in gaining strength, you will never be more than mediocre."

Kisame saw the potential in the two, and once they flourished they would be good opponents.

"I am the strongest in the entire northern water tribe." Kisame told him.

This wasn't Kisame bragging either, it was a fact. Kisame was the strongest amongst everyone in the north.

The girl asked in a shocked voice," Even waterbenders?"

"Especially waterbenders." Kisame responded.

"Even the person that's teaching Aang?" Katara questioned still trying to confirm Kisame's claims.

Kisame just nodded," Even him. Old man is strong for his age, but I'm even stronger." Kisame turned and started on his way to his own home to get some rest," You guys seen the part of the wall getting fixed?"

They nodded, how could they not? A hole the size of 2 full grown sky bison was hard to miss.

He looked over his shoulder, smirk still on his face," That was a result of my last fight with master Pakku."

Sokka and Katara's minds were racing. He was the one who did that? That kinda power was unreal.

Kisame stopped walking again and asked the two," You two are Hakoda's kids, right?"

"Yea," Katara answered.

"How do you know that?" Sokka inquired.

"He came up here to resupply one day. He seemed strong and I was in the mood to spar," Kisame replied," Your father, even if he isn't a waterbender, was able to keep up with me, and actually almost beat me too. That godamned boomerang of his was annoying."

Kisame saw the shared look of surprise on both of their faces. Did they not know their dad was chieftan for a reason? He was one of the few chiefs that Kisame respected, mostly because of his strength. Without being a bender, Hakoda was still one of the strongest people Kisame knew.

Kisame continued on, despite the duo's surprised looks," After he and me were healed he asked me if I could do him a favor. Usually i don't do people favors, but he was strong and i respected strength, so i said yes."

Kisame reached inside his navy blue pants pocket and pulled out a letter.

He stretched out his arm and held the letter out to the kids.

"He told me to tell you that this might be the only letter he can get to you guys since he will be so far away and in combat situations." Kisame told them.

Sokka stepped up and grabbed the letter, bringing it back to him and Katara.

Kisame turned around and started leaving, as this was a private moment for them and his job was done. All he wanted to do was go to sleep now. After he reported to Arnook that he was finished, Kisame was gonna call it a day.

"Thank you," he heard.

It was so low that Kisame with his will trained ears barely heard the whisper. The thank you was feminine so he assumed it was from the girl.

"Don't think nothing of it, just handing out the right information to the right people," Kisame replied and kept walking until he was out of the kids' sight.

A few minutes later found Kisame in his house. It wasn't big and barely had any decor, and essentially was a basic house. Kisame stripped down to his pants and lied down in his king sized bed. Kisame lied there thinking about just how much the world will be affected by the avatars return.

"With him being the avatar he is bound to fight some strong people often,"Kisame thought with a sharp grin on his face as he stared at the ceiling,"I've been wanting to travel the world and see what it has to offer in terms of fighters."

A plan was being formulated in his head as his smile grew at the simplicity of it all. Kisame finally closed his eyes and calmed his breathing in an attempt to go to sleep. His efforts were rewarded as he quickly fell into a serene slumber.

"Things are getting exciting," Kisame mumbled into the open air right before slumber overtook him.


	3. Chapter 3: Calm before the storm

"I'll shave off your legs!"-speech

_"He seems strong for his age."-_thoughts

*I don't own anything from Avatar the last airbender or Naruto in this story*

* * *

The next day saw Kisame waking up with the sun, as was now ingrained into his very being after training with master Pakku. He started putting on his sleeveless navy blue shirt, showing of the gills on his shoulders, matching pants and light grey striped arm and leg warmers(ie: swordsman outfit, zabuza outfit). At a young age Kisame realized he was more comfortable in sandles than the normal boots, so he had some custom combat sandles made just for him. He strapped those on and tied down the ends of his pants with white bandages so they wouldn't flap around and dangle. Kisame finally tied a dark blue headband around his head to hold up his shark fin styled hair.

Seeing as he was fully dressed Kisame started out of his home. He grabbed his again custom made kitana inside the sheathe, also bandaged, and left his house while strapping the kitana to his back.

Kisame stepped out of his house and breathed in a deep breath of crisp ocean air and made his way to his personal training grounds. As he was walking he saw master Pakku apparently doing his usual warm up waterbending routine.

_"Ah,"_ Kisame thought in realization_," he is training the avatar today."_

Kisame was curious about this avatar's ability so he decided he was gonna stick around to watch this.

"Ah, Kisame. Nice to see my teachings haven't worn off yet." Master Pakku greeted jokingly in remembrance at the times when he got the pleasure of waking Kisame up.

Ah good times.

Kisame grew a little smirk at the greeting and replied, " Good morning to you too master. Good to see your hip hasn't given out on you yet."

They both chuckled at Kisame's comeback and stepped forward to shake the others hand.

"So what brings you back to your old training grounds Kisame?" Pakku questioned after the two men separated.

" I know today you will be training the avatar in waterbending and I wanted to see how he will do."Kisame answered.

Pakku looked over Kisame's shoulder and saw his new trainee, the avatar, and a... girl.

Pakku's smile quickly flipped into a frown at, "It would seem you won't have to wait long because here he is now."

Kisame turned and for the first time got a close up look at the avatar.

First thing about the avatar Kisame noticed was that he was small, granted he was still a boy, Kisame still wanted to be a little impressed. Kisame could see the arrowheads of airbender blue arrows on the back of the avatar's hands and the distinct one on his bald head. Remembering what he read about airbenders Kisame could assume they ran all along his body. The different shades of orange that make up his airbending monk robes and shoes. And finally his grey eyes showing every bit of his childishness and young age.

"Good morning, master Pakku!" The avatar greeted excitedly.

Pakku greeted back in a clipped tone, " Greetings to you too avatar."

Aang, surprised at the tone, was a little slow on replying, "Uhhh ... this is my friend, Katara. The one I told you about?"

Pakku crossed his arms and replied in a flat voice,"You didn't tell me your friend was a girl. In case you didn't know, in our tribe, it is forbidden for women to learn any combat waterbending."

Kisame could see that master Pakku's words clearly struck a nerve in the girl. Kisame personally thought that rule was ridiculous, if some women wanted to learn how to fight who are were men to stop them.

"What do you mean you won't teach me?" Katara snapped in anger, "I didn't travel all this way so you could tell me no!"

Pakku, still in his flat tone said,"No."

"But there must be other female waterbenders in your tribe!" Katara tried to argue.

"Here, the women learn from Yugoda to use their waterbending to heal," Pakku answered, "I'm sure she would be happy to take you as her student, despite your bad attitude."

Here Pakku pointed to the place he was talking about.

Katara was insistence to learn combat techniques, "I don't want to learn how to heal, I want to learn how to fight!"

Pakku narrowed his eyes,"What is so wrong with learning how to heal young lady? I happen to know many great healers who have saved several lives in this tribe, including mine," Pakku stated.

Kisame could attest to that, he himself has been to many healers and holds a bit of respect for the practitioners of the art. They fixed him up countless a times either after a fight or a training accident.

"I understand that you want to learn how fight," Pakku continued,"but our tribe has customs, rules. Rules that I cannot break or bend."

Katara was still furious at the blatant unfairness to women and showed "Well, your rules stink!" she exclaimed

Also angry Aang added,"Yeah, they're not fair! If you won't teach Katara, then ..." He trailed off thinking of something to add.

"Then what?" Pakku asked in a challenge.

Aang stated,"Then I won't learn from you!"

Pakku wasn't disturbed by the threat like statement as he unflinchingly said, "Well, have fun teaching yourself! I'm sure you'll do a great job." He said sarcastically. br /

Katara was surprised that Aang would give up the chance at learning waterbending for her. She had to stop him before he actually doesn't get a chance to learn.

"Wait! Aang didn't mean that!" She interrupted. She turns to Aang,"You can't risk your training for me. You have to learn from Master Pakku, even if he is a big jerk."

Aang nods in resignation at the fact but couldn't help but feel as is he failed in trying to help Katara. Katara turned towards the healing Hut, head down in defeat. Pakku's scowl fell as he watched the girls defeated posture. Her feet dragging her to towards the healing hut. He wanted to help her, really. As a teacher what right did he have turn down someone wanting to learn. The rules though prevented him from interfering directly. The only person who had the power to overturn that was the chief. br /

"Master Pakku," Kisame called out.

Pakku turned his attention towards Kisame to listen to what he had to say.

Kisame continued, " What about, her?" He asked.

Kisame saw Pakku's eyes widen in realization at what he heard. Kisame couldn't believe Pakku forgot about her, she was the only female to teach herself a form of combat waterbending.

"That's right," Kisame heard Pakku murmer in realization," she can possibly be the answer to this predicament."

Pakku turned quickly and called out to the girl before she got out of hearing range.

"Katara," he called and she turned, "we might've come up with a solution."

Kisame saw the girls face light up in uncontrollable glee, as did the avatar's.

_Sucks she might be regretting this before the day is over, even if Ulva takes he as an apprentice,"_ Kisame stated to himself in thought.

Kisame leaned back against an ice wall as Master Pakku finalized ideas with the girl while the avatar just listened. He felt the weight of his katana against his back and rationalized that watching the avatar train didn't sound as entertaining as it once did.

He looked towards the trio and saw Master Pakku pointing and indicating with his hands towards Ulva's place. Kisame heard Master Pakku tell her just what directions to take and before Kisame knew it she was off in search of Ulva's place. Kisame didn't stay long enough to see the avatar finally start his training and more importantly he didn't get to see the small smile on Pakku's face.

* * *

With Katara

Katara was ecstatic, Pakku actually helped her out, maybe he wasn't such a jerk after all. As she followed the directions she reached her destination and saw it was a rather small place in comparison to the others around it. She swallowed the lump of trepidation that had formed in her throat at the unknown that lied behind the door. She stepped up, knocked on the door, and stepped back waiting for a indication her knock was heard. She heard the knob on the door jiggle as the person behind it turned it open. The door swung open and Katara was utterly shocked at who she saw.

"Mom?" she asked in shock as the person behind the door was fully revealed.

* * *

With Kisame

He had finally arrived at his training grounds outside the main area where everybody lived and took it in as he always does. The ice cold body of water that was surrounded by icy terrain, the scars that marred the area showing how hard he trained. The few dummies he had set up, made of ice but armored with fire nation gear that was recovered the tribe had in storage. He breathed in through his nose and extended his senses to make sure no one was around. After making sure he began training. If the was anyone spectating how Kisame trained they would be dumbfounded by extreme he took it. Kisame stretched out first, just to loosen up, and started his warm-up. He started out jogging 100 laps around the training grounds to warm-up. He idly wondered just why he always heard the faint cry of ,"Youth! ",but felt it would do more harm than good to remember. To some this would be easy, but Kisame had 91 kilograms (around 200 lbs) strapped to his chest and 46(around100 lbs) kilograms strapped to each of his limbs. With weight like that it made the 10 laps something intense. Kisame finished those laps relatively quickly, and was fully loose and warmed up. He gripped the handle of his katana and slid into the opening stance of his sword style. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath in through his nose and... blurred.

Kisame unsheathed his sword in one quick downward motion, slicing into an imaginary opponent. Immediately he stopped the downward motion, and swung upwards. As his sword reached the apex of its ascent Kisame stopped it and sliced to the side cutting the air into two. It continued like this for a while with Kisame slicing and adding in a thrust or a faint in. If any one was there to spectate they would see the utter power he was putting into each strike, displacing the air around his sword with each strike. As the shadow sparring continued he started to add in feet movements. A turn here and a twist there. Kisame grunted in exertion, expelling air with each swing of his sword. It was a spectacular site the utter speed, power, and technique that was behind the span swings, stabs, slices, and thrusts was awe-inspiring. It was like a rose with thorns, beautiful but dangerous. A few more hours in shadow sparring with unreal speed and strength saw to Kisame taking a short break. After the short break he immediately got back to work, and that was how until the sun went down into the horizon. He trudged back to his house, took of the weights and shirt, unstrapped his sword from his back, and immediately fell asleep not seeing the snow flakes slowly turn grey.

An: so that was chapter 3 read and review just what you thought of the chapter or what you think of the story so far. I'm already typing the next chapter because that's when the story officially picks up. So again read and review and have a nice day.


	4. Chapter 4: It begins

Okay ladies and gentlemen, first of all sorry for the long wait. I've just been busy with school and relationships, etc. But here we are with chapter four and i gotta say it's kinda long.(for me to write that is) If you're confused about what episode we are in, I'm in the the Siege of The Northern Water Tribe part 1. So without further ado ladies and gentlemen... Chapter 4: It begins.

* * *

Speech-"Ooooh, you look strong."

_Thoughts-"Finally someone that can get my blood pumping!"_

* * *

Kisame awoke to gray snow instead of the usual white. That was the first indication that something was wrong. Kisame snapped up out of his bed and looked out his window seeing the gray snow.  
He held one hand out of the window and let some fall into his hand. He pulled his hand back in and sniffed the snow.

"This...isn't snow. This is ash," he mumbled to no-one.

A hurried knock came upon his door, and Kisame immediately got up to answer it. It was a fellow tribesmen who delivered a message from the chief himself, saying he needed to speak with Kisame immediately.  
Knowing that things were getting serious and tense, if the gray snow was any indication, Kisame hurried to get ready to speak with Arnook. After strapping his sword onto his back Kisame was on his way, he saw his fellow tribesmen rushing about, some evacuating the civilians, others preparing for what they know is coming, some even stopped what they were doing and started praying.

He scoffed at the ones praying, he didn't believe in these spirits and he never will unless someone gives him legitimate proof of them. It didn't matter if the avatar was the supposed bridge to the other side, the avatar never showed him any "all powerful" spirits.

Anyways he was almost to the chiefs palace and he could see Chief Arnook standing there next to the girl, and the avatar.

As he got closer he could hear what the chief was saying," The stillness of battle is unbearable."

"I wasn't there when the fire nation attacked my people," here the avatar paused, almost as if for dramatic effect," but this time I'll make a difference," he stated determinedly.

Kisame decided now was a good time to announce he was there

"You wanted to see me Chief Arnook?" He called. Arnook twisted to the side and gazed upon Kisame with eyes full of a weariness that contradicted his actual age. He sighed a heavy sigh and started speaking," Kisame, I don't need to tell you that our tribe is about to go into battle," here he paused to let all who heard him digest his words. Then he continued," I don't need to tell you that we will be losing some of our brothers on this foul day, and I don't need to tell you that blood will be spilled by both sides today."

Another sigh escaped Arnook's lips as he thought about the events that will come today. Kisame saw Aang's face turn sour at what Arnook said, and saw Katara's turn sad.

His attention was drawn back to Arnook as he started speaking again, " What I do have to tell you is that I want you, Kisame, at the frontlines when the battle starts."

Kisame slowly grew a grin upon his scaley face. Arnook saw Kisame's smile and couldn't help but grow a smirk of his scaley face.

"I want you at the front because I want the fire nation to have fear," Arnook told him.

Everyone around him was surprised. Fear?

Arnook couldn't see the confused faces as he turned back around to look at the horizon.

"I want you to instill fear within the heart of the fire nation today Kisame. I want them to know that the north is not weak, but stronger than ever before. I want them, after this battle, to tell their Fire Lord of what occurred at this," here he paused, seemingly trying to find the right word to describe it," seige of the northern water tribe. I want them to tell him of just how the north kicked their fire spouting asses back to where they came!"Here Arnook's voice raised just a decibel higher and displayed a fiery passion that was one of the reasons he was chief in the first place.

"You'll be up there with Master Pakku driving the fire nation from our waters," Arnook told him. Kisame nodded his head and was doing a horrible time trying to smother the excited grin his face was steadily growing.

"That is all Kisame, dismissed," Arnook stated.

Kisame just nodded his head in confirmation and started on his way down to where the troops were. As he was making his way to when he saw Master Pakku, he felt more than saw the first fireball fired at them from the fire nation navy. The fireball hit the middle of the wall and the concusive force of the impact knocked some men back and destroyed that part. Seeing that the attack was finally beginning Kisame hurried his way over and made his way in front of the waterbenders with Master Pakku.

Kisame saw the non-benders armed with hardened bone spears, gleaming machetes, and clubs, the infantry of the Northern Water Tribe was severely lacking in weaponry, and their armor was no better. In comparison to the Fire Nation troops, who wore actual metal armor, the water tribesmen only wore cloth like armor or leather. With these critical equipment differences one would think that the Fire Nation would easily trounce the Northern military, but that couldn't be farther from the truth. What the Northern military lacked in firepower they more than made up for in tenacity and heart. Their courage and will power is what allowed them to last as long as they have in this war.

'Well that and a giant wall,' Kisame added in as as after thought.

"There, look another is coming right towards us!" A soldier cried out.

Kisame snapped his vision upwards and saw just that. A molten red glob of fire falling from the sky. He and the other Waterbenders got ready to stop it before it did any damage to the icy ground beneath their feet. He and about four others quickly gathered the snow beneath their feet, and rocketed it towards the fire ball. The cold from the snow was enough to cool the fires of the projectile, but not enough to stop it in its tracks. So the snow was quickly bended into ice to stop it where it was. Kisame dropped his arms, but did not drop his guard as he knew there were more incoming. And true enough Kisame spotted around five more fiery projectiles coming their way.

Kisame readied himself and yelled out, " We have more incoming! Get ready!"

At this they all snapped into readiness and prepared themselves for what was to come. In an instant Kisame burst into action, quickly bending the snow beneath his feet into his own speciality. Giant gaping maws that had an uncanny likeness to a shark were constructed as a result, and fired at two of the fire balls, completely stopping them in their tracks or plain destroying them before they could hit land. His ears twitched as he heard a loud groan come from the sky. His eyes quickly raced to the origin point and spotted the avatar, on his sky bison, sailing towards the Fire Nation Fleet.

'Is that kid going out there by himself?' Kisame questioned to himself, ' Does he not know there are probably hundreds of ships out there right now?'

Kisame's questioning thoughts on the avatar's actions quickly dissipated as he located more fire balls coming towards him and the other water benders. He had to really focus now, as the amount of fireballs coming their way now ranged into the tens. Kisame quickly gathered the water from one of the many pools beside him and shaped it into a shield shape in front of himself. He quickly started concentrating, and in an instant from the shield dozens of mini water projectiles, shaped like sharks, were blasted towards their incoming counter parts. What was special about this technique was the puncturing power the lightning fast sharks had. Since they were fired at top speed they punched through almost everything.

That's what's they did to the fireballs.

They quickly broke apart the burning red projectiles into harmless embers that feel easily onto the ground. This was the cycle the continued until the sun started to lower.

As Kisame and the other water benders of the tribe repelled wave after wave of the dangerous spheres of fire, fatigue started to set into their bodies. Even Kisame was breathing a little harder than usual. As night fell it brought a severely needed reprieve for the waterbenders. The attacking navy commander seemed to understand that waterbenders were stronger when the moon was up if the cease fire was anything to go by. Despite Kisame and other the other waterbenders' best efforts a good few fireballs were still able to make it past them. As a result there were many melted homes, destroyed bridges, and flaming craters scattered across the city. Kisame grimaced at the damage that was wrought and vowed to make whoever constructed this assault pay.

"Kisame!" A wizened voice rang out.

"Hmm?" Kisame hummed out in a questioning matter to whomever called his name. Turns out it was Master Pakku, who was looking fine besides a clear sign of fatigue.

"Yeah, Pakku?" Kisame asked.

Pakku responded," Are you well, Kisame? Out of all of us here you stopped the most. I might be up in age, but I am still a master waterbender and I'm a bit fatigued."

"I'm fine, you should check up on your other students. Some of them look dead on their feet."

And it was true. Some of the newer waterbenders looked about ready to fall over and stay there. Master Pakku looked at his students and quickly barked out orders to them. Ordering the ones that were still able enough to help the ones that weren't to the healing huts.

"Nilak! Siku! Help put out these fires before they do anymore damage!" Master Pakku commanded as he turned away from Kisame.

Kisame looked up as he felt the moon's silver rays shine down upon him. He gazed up at the moon and could swear that it started glowing even brighter. Kisame didn't know how long he was gazing at the moon for, and didn't really care, but what did matter was the fact it was now going down. And he knew with the fall of the moon, the sun would rise.

"It's almost sunrise fish face," a low feminine voice said to Kisame's left

Kisame frowned a it at the nickname she insisted on calling him since they were kids," Yes it is. Glad you could finally show up Ulva, and don't call me fish face."

That now identified Ulva chuckled and replied," You know I'm just poking fun Kisame. No need to turn.. blue on me," here she tried to cover up her snicker,"I won't be here for long. Arnook assigned me to guard the Spirit Oasis. He thinks that there might be something about to occur there and I was the only one he could spare."

"Haha, very funny. Well good luck in guarding some fish," Kisame replied dismissively at the thought that someone would willingly sneak into a place that only held two simple fish.

"Hopefully it's as boring as you will believe it is Kisame. You might not believe that those fish are important, but I do."

"We're not having this argument again Ulva. As i said before show me proof and then I'll believe you."

Ulva smiled widely and lightly laughed," You'll eat those words before this day is over Kisame."

Kisame chuckled and smirked his sharp smirk,"We will see."

They both allowed a laugh to escape their mouths as Kisame could hear Ulva's wooden sandals clacking away towards the Spirit Oasis. As Kisame heard her sandals fade away towards where he knew the Spirit Oasis was he knew that the battle was gonna start again, as the sun was bound to be coming up soon, and with the damage that was done to the outer wall, fire nation soldiers were gonna set foot on Northern Water Tribe land or well ice and snow.

"Kisame," Master Pakku started," the trebuchets will commence firing again, and we both know the wall will not hold another barrage. I want you down there with our non benders to greet our 'guests' when they get past our outer wall."

Kisame just nodded because he couldn't speak since he was buzzing with so much excitement. He loved a good battle and he just hoped someone in the fire nation navy would give him a good fight.

* * *

Somewhere on a fire nation ship just off the coast of the ice that was the Northern Water Tribe, a man with dark ebony locks that flowed down to his shoulder sneezed.

"Hmm, someone must be speaking about me," he hypothesized in a monotone voice.

Right then a soldier ran up and stood at man looked over his shoulder, and beckoned the soldier to say what he was there for with his hand.

The soldier crossed his hands behind his back as he began to relay the news," Sir, admiral Zhao wanted me to give you the news. We have broken through the outer wall and are now commencing the land part of the operation."  
The man hmmd at this and asked," Anything else?"

"Uh yes sir your uncle Iroh would like for you to join him on deck. He said he would like to speak to you before you go into battle."

The man arched a black perfectly trimmed eyebrow at this, but dismissed it as his uncle just being himself. "Tell him I'll be there in a few. Once I'm done down here I'll meet him on top deck."

"Yes sir," and with this the soldier turned and walked out of the metal room.

The man turned back towards the picture of his mom and bent down to pray as the incense sticks and candles he lit flickered. He eventually straightened out, but kept his eyes closed and stayed on his knees. He started taking deep breaths through his nose.

In and out.

In and out.

In and out.

The flames that lit up the room started to flicker wildly, almost as if they were possessed, and continued to get even wilder as the man continued his breathing.  
Suddenly he exhaled a deep deep amount of oxygen from his lungs, and the flames died, and the room was bathed in darkness. Very slowly he got up off of his knees, armor clanking along the way, and opened his eyes as he reached his full height.

Golden amber eyes with slightly slit pupils cut through the darkness as the man made his way out of the pitch black room.

* * *

So, how was that, eh? Good? Bad? Terrible? Leave a review please of what you thought. Now to address some reviews.

Hex10 the answer to to your question was no, but that character will have an impact later on in the story.

Grocamol- Thanks man (or girl) I pride myself in my understanding and execution of the English language.

GlitterVan- No they won't be. I will not be including characters from the Narutoverse. I will instead create Oc's and take some from readers. To make up for the lack of hard hitters in the Avatarverse I will be upping some characters 'power' level as you noticed already.

firegodvargas- No there will not be any Akatsuki members, but there will be similar characters. And yes he will have some memories re-awakened.

Imagine476- Thanks for the kind words man( or again girl) I'm really passionate towards making what I write good, so to know that at least someone notices it is good to know

Lord-Of-Change- Thanks for your support also, glad to know I have someone waiting on an update from me.

Pudding Dragon- The answer to your questions...will not be revealed yet, so wait and see. No spoilers.

Guest- Thanks for the kind words they warm my heart.

Imthinkingaboutchangingmyname(you should too that was really long(that's what she said)) Thanks for the kind words. That's what I was aiming for with making Kisame the main character instead of the usual Naruto or Sausuke. Sorry, but no I will not be adding characters from the Narutoverse as that is not the way I want this to go. Oh and look at my earlier answer to answer the sword one.

DarkLord98- Thanks for thinking that man(or girl) I really am hoping that my fic will get big as it continues.

Oh, and to all of the people that Favorited and followed thank you so much for your support, you guys(or gals) are the reason I'm gonna keep updating this fic. expect another chapter within another month or so, maybe earlier. I've also been thinking about a Codename Kids Next Door fic based on what happened after Numbah 1 went into the G:Knd and that teaser we got about the G:Knd. I've been juggling it in my head. Leave a review about what you think. That's all I got for now so until next time, may the odds be forever in your favor ;).

Oh and if you want to give me an Oc PM me or leave it in the review section so I can see it. The Oc needs to have a fitting name(like fit into the Avatarverse), gender ablities(if any), home location, usual clothing, physical characteristics, emotional characteristics(like how they act), and where they are from. So yeaa...Now that is it so until next time, May the Odds Be Forever In Your Favor.


	5. Chapter 5: Begginning Of A Legend Pt1

Speech- "Don't die on me too quickly now."

_Thoughts- "What kind of monstrosity is that?"_

The Fire Nation's assault seemed unending and unstoppable as they meticulously moved into and through the city block by block. They were of course met with fierce resistance from the Northern Water Tribe, but with better armor and better weapons the water benders were in the fight of their lives. Countless soldiers, some on foot and some on mounts, draped in ebony black armor with fiery red and ash grey highlights moved forward with monstrous fire breathing tanks that seemed nigh impenetrable. And with the ships still firing scorching hot projectiles, the water tribe military was hard pressed to mount any kind of counter offensive. With every familiar corner and every familiar walkway, the water tribe warriors were being forcefully shoved back with red hot fire following them. To anyone else insurmountable odds like these would utterly break a man's resolve to fight.

But they didn't have Kisame.

Like a force of nature Kisame was single handedly dismantling any and all fire nation soldiers and tanks that found themselves in his way. He brought a counter to the Fire Nation's blazing inferno. He was the spear head of the spear that was the Northern Water Tribe military. Utter destruction was what Kisame left in his wake as he started to slowly halt the Fire Nation's assault. Nothing like it had ever happened before. He was just one man! Even some of the older soldiers were entrapped by Kisame's battle prowess despite his young age. He fought with a ferocity that was unmatched. With him the water benders found a source of energy to pull from, and they fought with their very souls to not allow the cruel war machine that was the Fire Nation the satisfaction of taking their home away from them.

As the sun began to set and night began to once more take hold of the sky, exhaustion began to set into the bodies of the Northern Water Tribe warriors. They did not have the luxury of having a nearly endless supply of troops, artillery support, and metal armor. The Water Tribe were fighting a superior opponent that gave them no breathing room or break. The Northern Water Tribe fought with all they had and were able to halt the Fire Nation's advance to a standstill, but something had to give to allow either side the opportunity they desperately needed.

Something did break, but it didn't benefit either sides.

"Hold strong!" Pakku commanded over the sounds of moving tanks and blasts of fire.

He himself was having a hard time, not by the fire benders' skill, he could whip anyone of them with one hand, but by sheer number that the Fire Nation was dumping onto them. For every one of them he took out of battle 3 would take his place. For every tank he would disable, there would be two more in its stead. So if one would do the math such numbers seemed exhausting to combat.

_"Plus I'm not getting any younger,_" Pakku thought to himself as he maneuvered around yet another blaze.

He turned towards the attacker and bent a snowy wave that covered the attacker from head to toe. Pakku quickly ducked under a fire blast that came a little too close to his head, and quickly bent a retaliation shot of snow at the offender. His eyes darted towards a group of soldiers that were too close together, and took advantage of it. He swung his arms in an upward motion, bending the snow around the soldier's feet, and rocketed them all away. Pakku had no time to catch his breath from just dispatching those ten soldiers at once, as his peripherals were filled with the color red. His honed reflexes allowed Pakku to hit the deck, so to speak, and let the blast of fire sail of his body. Pakku looked up from his position in the snow and saw a tank angle its gun down in his direction, and in the next second it fired. Pakku watched an unholy amount of fire come barreling towards him, and reacted as quickly as he could. He bent a wall of snow in front of his face, and braced for the impact.

**FWOOSH! BOOM!**

And impact it did. Pakku was very lucky as the blast was slightly off in its destination and struck just before Pakku's wall, but he didn't know that. All he knew was that he was hurting, and could only hear murky undistinguishable noises. He slowly opened his eyes as the effects from the blast were made clear in his swimming vision. He felt more than saw two hands grip his arm pit area and start dragging him backwards away from the battle. Pakku slowly closed his eyes as his lids began to feel heavier, and the strength to hold them open was not found.

"Get him outta here!" He heard.

_"Kisame?"_ Pakku slowly thought.

Pakku willed his eyes open in order to catch a glimpse of his strongest student. Very slowly he moved his tired eyes to where he heard Kisame, and could just make him out through all of the blur and slight blood. He could make out the signs of battle on Kisame's form, but just barely. It wasn't because of his currently blurred vision, but because of the utter lack of wounds or burn on Kisame entirely. He did see the odd burn mark here and there and minor cuts on his clothes, but besides those Kisame showed no harmful wounds. Pakku smiled to himself as he realized that the lack of effect the Fire Nation had on his pupil. He knew though that without him on the battlefield their effectiveness would drop, but Pakku let himself slip into unconsciousness knowing that Kisame had what it took to finish the job.

Kisame quickly unsheathed the sword on his back, which up until this point had not seen any action, and slashed the tank he was on top of in half. Kisame, in an expert show of agility, jumped off of the bisected tank and front flipped back onto the ground. He quickly turned around and parried the incoming stab from a Fire Nation spearman, cutting the spear itself in half, and gripped the soldier by his face with his free hand. In a show of tremendous strength that left any witnesses in awe, Kisame launched the soldier back at the group of spearmen he came from.

Kisame heard a tank fire off a blast of fire, and quickly swung his head to where he heard it from in order to see his next target. Time seemed to slow for him as he the situation unfolded itself in his mind. His teacher for more than half of his life was injured on the ground with a tank barring its barrel down on him with the intention of ending his life. Kisame quickly ran towards the tank in an effort to halt its firing, but could tell that he would not make it in time to stop it. He saw it from beginning to the end in crystal clear definition. From the firing of the blaze, to the impact, to, finally, his teacher being sent hurtling up and across the landscape.

A low growl escaped the back of Kisame's throat as fury began to bubble in his gut. He grabbed that anger and ran with it, literally. Kisame was in a dead sprint, and as a result he ate up the distance between him and the tank in seconds. Kisame unsheathed his sword and cut the tank's cannon in half. He was halted from finishing off the tank as his attention was grabbed by an incoming blaze of fire. With a small effort Kisame sheathed his sword, and bent a wall of snow to act as his defense against the fire ball. The fire ball extinguished itself against the dense wall of snow, but Kisame had to keep the wall there as more fire balls backed up the first. Kisame did not like being on the defensive for that long and quickly changed that. He quickly stepped back from the wall and began punching it with different combinations. A left and a right were fired at the wall, and as a result fist sized sharks pelted the soldiers with the force of a sledgehammer. Kisame slowly looked around his wall to see who was left standing, but quickly had to pop his head back in lest he risk it getting blasted away by the tank heading towards him. He knew that fist sized sharks would not do the trick, so he decided to go with something a little bit bigger. He started to focus, and bent his knees slightly. He brought his hands down to his waist, and with no delay, cupped them outwards together impacting the snow wall.

The result of his action was tremendous. A ferocious shark that looked roughly around the size of the tank itself, maybe even bigger, was headed right for the tank. Any soldiers that were acting as support for the tank immediately tried to disperse as they saw the godddamn FLYING SHARK heading their way. Some soldiers to this day swear it grinned at them as it became closer. Some got away in the nick fof time, but others were not so fast.

**THWOOSH!**

The shark connected, and seemed to swallow the tank whole. No one said a word or made a move as they all bore witness to the monuments bending aptitude that Kisame just demonstrated. That silence was broken as the clattering of a helmet hitting the ground drew the attention of everybody. It was a soldier of the Fire Nation who was the culprit. With his helmet gone Kisame could see that the man was sweating gallons, bucket loads, as he slowly began to stagger backwards with wide eyes. Those wide eyes were locked onto Kisame, and Kisame locked eyes with the terrified man.

The man slowly raised his hand shakily, and pointed at Kisame, "M-m-monster," the man mumbled as he slowly moved backwards.

His declaration was said low, but everyone around him heard it loud and clear. He called Kiame a monster. Not a man. He called him a beast, an animal, a...

"…Monster," The man said louder still pointing at Kisame with a rapidly shaking finger, "Monster! Monster!"

The man yelled this as he tried to get the hell away from whatever that thing was that was wrecking them all. That was no man, that he witnessed today that was a monster in his mind. The man tripped over his own feet he was so desperate to get away. The men watched him scurry off, and that was seemingly the hypothetical straw that broke the camel's back one could say. Since that was the last tank that was deployed in that sector for the moment, the men were without any heavy reinforcements. Kisame saw it with his own eyes. These almighty, fearless, soldiers of the invulnerable Fire Nation started to retreat. No, not retreat, they started to run with their tails held between their legs. The ferocity of the North combined with the might of Kisame proved to be too much even for them.

A loud roar filled the air, and it wasn't from any sort of animal. It was from the water benders and regular soldiers who just witnessed what had happened. They were ecstatic! They yelled in triumph at this small victory, but knew all was still not well within their home. The commanders present knew this as well.

"Shaddup you lot!" One commander yelled out. The new cutover his left eye, which was set in a glare to match the right one, dripping a small amount of blood. The group was silenced as the man began to speak, and even Kisame paid attention. Kisame respected the guy enough as he saw how the man got the cut, and how he retaliated.

"We still have brothers out there fighting with tooth and nail! This was just one small victory. The battle has yet to end everywhere," here the man swept his gaze across the accumulated group," I, for one, am not trying to let them go at it alone. I say we all do what was done here again, and show those fire spouting bastards just what kind of beast they unleashed when they decided to step onto out land! I want this day to go down in their history books as the day they got their collective asses handed to them on a silver platter by the Northern Water Tribe!"

With that he raised his bone machete, and yelled. The soldiers and Kisame, inspired by the man, yelled in unison and created one yell that resounded throughout the Tribe. He started to run in the direction of the closest battlefield, and the soldiers followed closely ready to lay into the Fire Nation invaders.

Kisame got ready to follow, but was stopped in his tracks as he heard slow clapping come from behind him.

Kisame quickly turned around in an effort to find the clapper, but to no avail as there was confusingly no one behind him. That caused a question mark to appear in Kisame's head as he swore he heard clapping coming from right there. Again the clapping started up again, and again Kisame turned around in an attempt to see just who was clapping. Just like last time there was no one in sight. By the second time Kisame was utterly perplexed, and slightly irritated as the low growl the bubbled up in the back of his throat was any indication. Let it be known, Kisame was not one with a good amount of patience.

The clapping again began, but this time a voice accompanied it.

"Oh bravo. I have to say that was a very inspiration, uh whatever that was. That really got my blood pumping in excitement, but alas these piss poor water benders could not last more than five seconds in a fight with me before they, how one would say, were gone with the wind." The person, male if the voice was anything to go by, chuckled at his own joke and slowly stepped into Kisame's sight.

The first thing Kisame noticed were the golden amber eyes that were slightly slit in the pupil. Those eyes were currently filled with amusement at the 'joke' he told earlier. He wore custom made apparently charcoal black armor, with golden highlights along the pointed pauldrons and breast plate, had the sleeves cut off so that his arms were exposed to the open air around him. He had one oddly placed green band wrapped around his right bicep that seemed to be flowing with some sort of substance. His forearms were covered with guards that match the rest of his armor, but ended close to the elbow joint. Kisame noted in his run down of the guy who was quick on his ascension to number one on Kisame's to rip apart list, which was conveniently formed the moment Kisame heard the fire bender's voice. His armored bottoms, as Kisame noticed, were not as clunky as some of the other soldiers' were, as they seemed to lighter in weight and thinner. His black bottoms were held secure by a red and gold belt that had the Fire Nation insignia as its buckle. Unlike some of the other soldiers there was no skirt looking thing around his waist.

That was always a question that plagued Kisame's mind. No matter which way you look at it, you were wearing skirt. A type of apparel that only females wore, not males.

Anyways the armored pants continue down into the armored, and pointed shoes that were worn by every Fire Nation soldier Kisame had seen so far. Which would've been the same case when it came to the fellow before him, but it wasn't. Instead of pointed shoes, which again Kisame believed to be for more comedic value than anything, the quickly becoming an enigma fire bender wore no shoes at all. Kisame understood that earth benders had this custom since they had a connection to the earth itself, but a fire bender having no shoes raised many questions. And again two more of those green bands were wrapped around the ankles of this, to Kisame, strange fire bender.

As Kisame finished his evaluation of his current foe, he saw that he had a body type that was similar to his own, and Kisame was no small person. Kisame guessed that he was at least a good two inches taller, but other than Kisame being a bit bigger in the muscle department, there were no stark differences since he looked around the same age as Kisame. As Kisame brought his gaze back to the face of his current annoyance, his first thought was of how much he resembled the current Fire Lord, but with a few differences of course. Again in contradiction to the fabled long hair Fire Nation people wore, his was short and only reached his shoulders, and was styled in a slicked back manner (kinda like Bradley cooper's). A slightly squared jaw that ended in a pointed chin and a round forehead with dark eyebrows, and pronounced cheek bones made up his facial features.

"Who are you?" Kisame demanded with slight irritation in his voice.

"Me, my name is Masaru" He said in a young yet slightly deep voice. (Think Deidara from Naruto but the English dubbed version)

"You done checking me out, huh? I tell you this now, I'm not into men. I love women thank you very much." He said in an amused tone.

That vein in his forehead flared up again as Kisame gave the fire bender a dead pan look that conveyed that he didn't find his comment funny.

"I know I'm good looking and everything, but before you get your hopes up I don't swing that way." The fire bender said with a smile on his face knowing he was getting under Kisame's skin.

"I'm not gay!" Kisame yelled in retaliation.

Before the guy could run his mouth Kisame bent a wave of snow at him forcing Masaru to close his mouth and dodge.

"We're done talking!" Kisame declared as he was fed up with the man before him. He unsheathed his sword with a sharp **SHIINGG**, and held it out towards his foe.

"I hope you've said your final goodbyes to whoever, cuz now I'm gonna cut you to pieces!"

With warning Kisame rushed forwards with enough force to shift the snow and crack the ice beneath his feet and quickly got within Masaru's guard as he had not expected a man of Kisame's size to be that fast. Kisame swung his sword horizontally across Masaru waist level with all intention of cutting him in half. Masaru though showed some aptitude in combat as he quickly skidded away from the slice, and brought up his guard. It was just in time too as Kisame did not stop there. Kisame quickly aimed his attacks higher, and swung his sword diagonally across Masaru's chest, but was met with a block from said person.

**CLANG! **

The forearm guards met the sword with a resounding clang as Kisame's slice was halted. Kisame pressed his weight down onto the sword as he knew no one could contend with him in a strength contest, hands down.

"_What crazy strength," _Masaru thought in shock as his arms shook in the effort it took to hold off the weight that was now pressing down on him, "_I'm one of the strongest men in the Fire Nation period. Only Uncle Iroh is strong enough to make my arms shake in such a way, but even then it is never this bad." _

Masaru realized that in a game of strength he would surely lose, so he stepped back from the sword and allowed it to fall. What he didn't know was that Kisame was counting on, and instead of Kisame stumbling forwards like Masaru planned, Kisame lashed out with his left leg in a side kick to the ribs that connected. The kick was indeed powerful as Masaru was barely able to put up a block quick enough to lessen its affect, but even then he was sent careening off of his feet and in the direction the kick was meant to take him in the first place.

"Ooof!" Masaru grunted as he flew backwards.

Kisame watch him fly away, and tched in annoyance as he saw that Masaru was able to land on his feet.

Kisame felt good after connecting with that kick. He knew that the fire bender would be to worried about getting cut in half to notice something like, I don't know, a leg coming his way. So he took that opportunity and kicked the guy in the face

Kisame had a smug smile on his face as he saw the guy get up, looking a little dazed.

"I hope that kick wasn't too hard now. I would be plain embarrassing if one light kick took you out of commission," He teased with a chuckle.

As Kisame finished off his chuckle he noticed that Masaru was extremely angry if the flames in the back of his eyes were any indication. No that wasn't hypothetical either. Kisame literally saw a small green flicker in Masaru's eyes as he fully recovered from his kick to the side. That didn't stop Kisame from smiling though. In all actuality Kisame saw his anger, and his smile widened even further, showing of his jaw filled with sharp to the tip teeth. He readied his sword as he knew that such anger would not go quietly.

Masaru was furious. Bottom line. How dare this lumbering blue skinned brute hit him? Masaru had not been hit since the last time he sparred with his father and that was a day before his uncle came back with the news of the successful takeover of Ba Sing Se at the cost of his son, and Masaru's favorite cousin. That didn't matter now as he was struck by some riff raff from the Northern Water Tribe. To Masaru that was the ultimate insult to all of the hours he spent perfecting his craft. Masaru vowed he would not let such trash touch him again, and he would be leaving this distasteful Water Tribe with this fish man's head.

Masaru spread his legs shoulder width and pulled at the inferno blazing inside of him. In a quick moment his hands, and feet were lit in what was blazing green fire. He smirked a smug smirk as he saw the astonishment in his opponent's eyes. He loved getting looks of surprise from his opponents before they turned to ash before his might. This man would be no different from the rest.

Masaru took a stance with his legs slightly bent, his right shoulder being pointed towards Kisame, his knees turned inwards, his hands held in a ready position in fists, with his left being held close to his jaw and his right bent inwards at waist level. He began to bounce on the balls of his feet when he suddenly disappeared.

Kisame wildly looked around with his eyes. Never before had he seen such a thing. Kisame couldn't see him anywhere. He tightened his stance as he knew Masaru now had the drop on him this time.

He didn't have to wait very long as he heard the familiar noise of a fireball coming at from his right side, and turned to extinguish it. Yet when Kisame sliced the fireball in half he immediately had to drop his sword as it became too hot for him to hold. He yelp-I mean grunted in pain as he backed away from his smoking sword and tried to shake the pain from his smoking palms. Kisame gazed down at his hands and could see that the skin on them was slightly singed, and would probably flake. He gritted his teeth in slight pain as tightened his hands into fists to at determine if they were still combat ready. With the pain that flared up when he made a fist his hands would need a few moments to get themselves together.

"What nice looking, what is this? Katana?" Masaru asked as he was now in front of Kisame with his sword held in his hands as he appraised it.

Kisame stayed silent as he could not do anything due to the fact that his hands were out of commission for a few more minutes.

"Nice Indeed," Masaru complimented," this style of craftsmanship looks very familiar. I've seen something similar to it once before."

Masaru then grew a look of concentration on his face as he thought about where he seen such craftsmanship before. There, it was like the proverbial light bulb went off in his head as he remembered.

"Now I remember where I've seen such craftsmanship before. This sword was created by Master Piandao," Masaru recalled," Though that leaves the question as to how you got it, hmm?"

Here Masaru narrowed his eyes at Kisame as the question was left in the air since Kisame had no intentions of answering it. Kisame didn't know of any Master Piandao. He received that sword from Master Pakku when he was five as a birthday gift. When he asked Master Pakku where he got it from ,since there was no such materials to make the sword in the water tribe, just answered it was a favor from a friend. That sword meant a lot to Kisame as it was one of his most prized possessions. It was right up there with the bone knife he used to sharpen his teeth with when he was a kid, but that's a story for another time. Kisame would not beg for the sword back as he, Kisame, does not beg for anything. So he just stood there with his sizzling hands being the only noise coming from him.

Masaru glared at Kisame even harder as he didn't answer his question. The glare disappeared as a smirk suddenly grew on his face, and he positioned the sword into both of his hands. He switched his eyes from the sword to Kisame, with that smirk still on his face, and began to speak with an amused tone.

"No matter. How do your hands feel hmm? You're lucky that they didn't turn fall off and turn to ash on the spot." Masaru said.

Kisame did not feel lucky as his hands were still unwillingly immobilized as the nerves were still throbbing. Good news was that Kisame could feel his hands fixing themselves, but it would take a few moments more. Kisame decided that he was very lucky that he was fighting a person who liked to talk.

Masaru's voice cut through to Kisame and it held an even more distinct tone of amusement. Almost as if he was about to tell a funny joke.

"The thing about my fire is that it is very special if the color didn't show that in the first place," Masaru informed Kisame," My fire is special in the fact that, when I'm not controlling it, it can and will burn everything it touches. I like to call it dragonfire."

Kisame was still silent as he slowly flexed his hands. Just a few more seconds.

"I won't bore you with my life story, and how I got this fire, but I do want to give you a demonstration," Masaru continued.

Kisame witnessed his hands became enveloped in that same green "dragonfire" and helplessly watch as Masaru completely melted his sword into a liquid form. Kisame looked on wide eyed and speechless as his remnants of his beloved sword dripped and dribbled onto to the floor. When the last of his sword found its way onto the floor the grip was tossed to his feet. Kisame was utterly speechless as, for one, he had never heard of such heat, such fire, being able to melt a sword. Yes, there are blacksmith pits, but those take time, and special requirements. What Masaru just did took only his two hands and a few seconds.

Masaru started to cackle as he saw Kisame's wide eyes follow the now destroyed katana. Kisame slowly lifted his gaze up from the now destroyed sword to witness Masaru's cackles and out right laughter.

Masaru gazed at Kisame and was able to calm his chuckles enough to speak.

"O-oh is the fish man sad that I destroyed his toy?" Masaru teased," Oh boo-hoo."

With that he broke down into laughter yet again at his actions. He stopped laughing as a curious sound made its way through his ears drums. What was that..was that..growling? Masaru looked at Kisame and could see that Kisame's upper lip was curled back, and the growl was coming from him. He stopped his laughing and warily got back into his stance as he heard pops come from Kisame hands as he curled them into tight fists.

He was given no warning, but had to immediately duck the right cross that came with the speed of a speeding bullet with the full intention of taking off his jaw. He immediately though had to cross his arms across one another to block the rising knee that came right after. He was lifted up and back by the pure strength of it, but was able to stay on his feet. Again he was put under assault as he had to sway his head to the left to dodge the straight right. Masaru swayed his head again to the right this time to dodge the straight left.

Kisame, in his anger, over extended his left and paid for in the form of a three punch combination to his abdomen. The punches packed a decent amount of strength in them, and as a result they caused Kisame to retreat less he get tagged with more. Kisame's nostrils flared as he tried to control his rage, and not make any more stupid mistakes. That was easier said than done was that damned smirk was now present on the prick's face. Again, Kisame saw the fire flare up around Masaru's hands, and prepared to defend himself as best as he could. Masaru dashed towards Kisame and tried to fake Kisame out with a faint. Kisame saw through the faint and parried the actual right hand that came his way at the wrist. Kisame knew he couldn't risk getting touched by that fire less he wanted to turn to ash.

Masaru began to pelt Kisame's guard with jabs, crosses, and uppercuts that Kisame had a hard time defending against. Kisame's defense weathered the assault until Kisame saw his chance to counter. It was off of a right uppercut that Masaru left out there a little too long. Kisame swayed his body back, to dodge the upper, and immediately swayed back in and knocked the arm that hit the arm that threw the upper down, knocking Masaru's guard down. Kisame took complete advantage and threw a right and left cross that connected with Masaru's face. Masaru, though, showed an extreme amount of conditioning as he ate the crosses, and ducked the third one that was coming his way.

In his crouched position Masaru tried to sweep the legs out from under Kisame with a low arc of flames, while at the same time trying to burn them off. Kisame hopped up and avoided the sweep, and ejected his legs downward as he fell back down to earth in an attempt to stomp on Masaru. Kisame cracked the ground as his stomp failed to connect with his target, as he had rolled away in time. Masaru stood up out roll and immediately had to block the high kick to his head with his forearms. Masaru pushed against the offending leg, knocking it back from where to came, and blocked the right that came his way. He countered with his own right that actually met its destination uninhibited, as Kisame could not block it in time. The right connected with a bang and moved Kisame's head and right into the left uppercut that Masaru threw.

Almost as if to prove his own toughness Kisame's head did not snap back because of the uppercut. Kisame, in an immense show of strength, pushed against the uppercut with his chin and succeeded in knocking it down. Masaru was left with his guard wide open and was gifted with an uppercut of his own courtesy of Kisame. Kisame's uppercut apparently had more strength than Masaru's as his did succeed in snapping Masaru's head back. Kisame threw a left straight at Masaru's gut and connected with a **THUMP! **The punch left Masaru bent at the waist gasping for the air that had escaped as a result of that freight train of a punch. Kisame did not leave Masaru to recover that air as he yelled and viciously smacked Masaru into the ground with a falling axe handle to the back

**SMASH!**

Masaru's body imprinted itself into the ground as a result of Kisame's raw strength. Kisame quickly jumped back as those green flames surrounded Masaru's downed body. With Kisame now within stomping distance this allowed Masaru to get up. He wiped some snow from his face that he got from being forcefully placed in it. Kisame had a smile on his as he saw this, but it was immediately wiped off as he quickly rolled away from the fire blast that came his way. The fire blasts did not let up there as another whizzed by his face and slightly burnt the side of it. He looked at Masaru, and had to rapidly dodge the incoming blasts of fire. Kisame showed a surprising amount of agility as he dodged the flaming projectiles. He had to duck, roll, and jump less he feel the full effects of that dragonfire.

Kisame though could not keep up such movement for long, and was beginning to get slower. What he didn't see though was that Masaru was leading him into a trap. Masaru had thrown more fireballs at a certain spot than others, and as a result a hole was formed. Masaru now was just herding Kisame towards it.

"Ooof!" Kisame grunted as jumped and had one foot land in the hole and the other on flat ground. The un-even ground knocked his balance off, and caused him to slip and fall on his back. He knew he quickly had to get up from his currently vulnerable position. Kisame quickly tried to scramble his way up, but was interrupted in his actions by Masaru.

"I'm sick of you! You are just an ant that needs to be crushed beneath my feet! I'm done squabbling with such trash! **NOW BURN AWAY TO ASH!**" Masaru yelled to Kisame in fury.

Kisame, during Masaru's yell, was able to stand up and see just what he was doing. Kisame saw that Masaru began to do some sort of techniques as his hands blazed brighter than before. Kisame was too far away to interrupt Masaru's actions and knew that a technique that required such a focus of bending would too powerful to just defend against. He would have to match power with power.

Kisame began his own technique and dug deep within himself to pull at his reservoir of chi that he could feel was slightly depleted from all of the fighting he had done today.

If a soul was there at the moment they would tell of how both parties began to glow the color of their respective elements, with Kisame glowing a deep blue and Masaru and bright green, as they channeled their mammoth amounts of chi into their respective techniques. Their energies began to whip wildly around their respective owners almost as if they were alive themselves and could feel their master's anger and irritation at each other. Such power did not go un-noticed though.

All throughout the battlefield soldiers were brought to their knees as a result of the pressure Kisame's and Masaru's powers were releasing, and some were knock unconscious on the spot as they could not handle such pressure. Some were able to stay on their feet, but were either breathing hard or holding themselves on their knees. One of the few that were able to stay on their feet was the famed, "Dragon of the West".

Iroh felt a drop of sweat slither down his brow as he felt some his nephew's power flare. Even though his nephew had an infamous temper, he knew better than to let it loose during such an important event as this. Even during battle his nephew knew that there was no one that could hold a candle to him, so he would have no reason to exert himself in such a way. That was what Iroh thought until a second power flared up to match, and dare he say, pass his nephew's

"_Wh-what in the world? Who could possess such power? Our spies have given us no reports of a person possessing such power the last time they reported in," Iroh reflected to himself in his thoughts," Well then again they did miss their most recent report date so maybe our theory of them being caught was not far off."_

A few days ago their spies that they had in the tribe failed to report in and were assumed to caught and disposed of. Those spies were tasked with giving reports about the status of the water tribe to help the siege that was currently taking place. Even though they failed to report, the Fire Lord decreed that they were too far in to pull out of their plans now and decided to continue with the siege. This would be Iroh's second siege, and it looked as if it this one would not be successful as his first. The water tribe fought ferociously, and Iroh warned Zhao, the admiral heading this siege, that this would not be easy. Zhao repeatedly assured Iroh that he had a plan in store for the water benders and that plan is what lead Iroh to his current position. He, Zhao, a female water bender, and a group of kids accompanying the avatar were in a standoff. Zhao, in all his wisdom, decided that in order to defeat the water tribe, was to capture the Moon Spirit. So here they were. Everyone in the Spirit Oasis were in a standoff as the kids and the water bender took their being there, Zhao, Iroh, and their escort, as a bad thing and the water bender knew that them even knowing about the location of the Spirit Oasis was a bad thing. Tensions were beginning to boil over, but their attention was taken by this sudden overwhelming blanket of power.

Iroh looked around and could see that the kids and their escort were flat out on the floor, and Zhao and the female water bender were kneeling, panting and sweating bullets. Iroh's thoughts were cut short as a he heard two male voices yell out in unison. Iroh could tell that something was said, but couldn't make it out. He didn't have time to either as suddenly the pressure was gone and what came in its place was a literal wall of steam passed over them.

**VWOOSH!**

Iroh could not see anything, but he could a rustle of movement. There was grunt of effort then a splash of water, and suddenly the area was bathed in a blood red light. AS the steam passed Iroh looked up into the sky to find where that color was coming from, and gasped in shock. The moon was gone! He heard Zhao cackle in delight.

Iroh swung his head towards Zhao, and saw he had a burlap sack that had something thrashing around in it. Iroh heard the kids gasp in shock also, and turned in their direction. When he turned he saw that there was only one fish in the Spirit Oasis. Iroh quickly put the clues together and turned on Zhao with anger and wariness.

"Zhao! Do you have any idea of what you just done?!" Iroh yelled.

Zhao had a sadistic glint in his eyes as he answered.

"Yes I do, old man! I have taken away the water benders bending, by taking the **MOON!"**

What is this? Chapter 5? Well anyways here you go chapter 5. This one is waaay longer than my normal ones due to a lot being revealed and a lot of action taking place in this chapter. There was too much to fit in this one chapter, so I will be splitting it up into another part. Sorry for missing my due date but I've been kind of busy with other things, and I just got out onto Summer Break. **WOOOH SUMMER! **Eh hem, well just wanna say I hope this chapter doesn't disappoint in any major ways, and I want your reviews and all that jazz. You guys responding to this is a big motivation booster since I know there are some people out there that actually want to read what I write. Well I'm done here, so take care…I'll see you guys later…BYE.


	6. Chapter 6: Begginning Of A Legend Pt2

"I will rip your head off with my bare hands!"- Speech

"_He does seem to have some potential at least."- Thoughts_

"_**I remember the last time I did something like that."- Thoughts in a flashback**_

"_Well, we can't have that now, can we?" Flashback speech_

* * *

"Ugh," Kisame groaned at his new position that he found himself in. Kisame was currently lying on his back, and was unable to get up.

"Ugh, damnit I knew I should've tested that technique before." Kisame complained.

The technique that Kisame had to use to counter Masaru's, and not end up ash in the wind, was a technique that he came up with after hearing stories of the greatest shark to ever live. The megaladon. Of course he heard about the shark when he was a kid, and thought it would've been cool to make one someday. As he grew up he had to start with a smaller version and build himself up from there, because the first time he went in guns blazing he ended up in a healing hut with an extreme case of exhaustion. When he was able to stand on his own two feet without help Pakku pulled him aside and told him to only practice that technique under his supervision. Today was the only day he had ever done the technique in battle, and the results were subpar. As Kisame recalled he just barely was able to ward off the blazing dragon that threatened him, and still here he was sprawled out on his back.

_(Flashback) _

_Kisame narrowed his eyes at Masaru and saw that Masaru was doing the same. With uncanny synchronization Kisame and Masaru launched what they each were building up at each other with a resounding yell._

"_**AHHH!" **__Masaru yelled over to Kisame," Just die already! I will erase your existence right here!"_

"_**YAHHH!**__" Kisame yelled back," I will not lose to the likes of you!"_

_At the same time Masaru and Kisame bellowed out the name they gave their respective techniques. (__These techniques that these two fired at each other had to have a name. Without a name they couldn't exactly mold the technique into what they wanted it.)_

"_**DRAGONS BURNING BELLOW!" **__Masaru bellowed with all of the air in his lungs. Masaru took a deep breath and from his mouth the mythical creature, whose flames were only contested by the phoenixes, the legend, and the almighty power that was a dragon. The jade dragon brought its burning gaze and ferocious teeth towards Kisame, and with no delay, rushed towards him._

"_**MEGALADONS ALL DEVOURING MAW!" **__Kisame yelled in return. Kisame thrust both of his hands forward (Like a Kamehameha) and from behind him rose the biggest shark that ever existed. The legend that had no equal when it came to the sea, the megaladon. It rose from behind Kisame and brought its gaze upon the dragon that dared to think it was its equal in strength, and swam baring its teeth in challenge. _

_The two behemoths, the two kings of their respective elements, the two monsters clashed in a glorious site and fought for dominance. It was a battle of strength. It was a battle of wills, and no one was willing to bow. Masaru and Kisame were putting their all into their respective techniques. It was the greatest shark to ever live and rule the oceans with its unstoppable strength versus the mythical beast that ruled over the skies with inextinguishable flames. When the two constructs of will power and chi met it was a glorious site that Kisame and Masaru could not take their eyes away from. The two beasts clashed with titanic force that threatened to knock their wielders off of their feet. But in all of its beauty the collision did not last for more than a few seconds. Kisame could feel his feet sliding back from the force of the dragon, and was shocked at what that meant. He stamped his legs into the ground as an anchor to keep him stationary, but even then his feet started to make a trench through the ground._

"_I'm being pushed back," Kisame thought in shock, but then narrowed his eyes as resolve filled them to the brim," No! I will not lose to the likes of him! Not now, not ever!" _

_Kisame pulled even deeper into his reserves until there was naught but a drop left. He pulled and grappled until he was left with nothing but the bare minimum, but it still wasn't enough! His feet were still being forced backwards with no sign of stopping, and his arms were shaking in exertion._

"_No!" Kisame yelled out in defiance, as he knew that Masaru knew that he was winning this exchange of pure power," No! No! No! __**NOOO!" **_

_Kisame felt a sudden rush of something fill his very being, his very soul, and rush through his body like a rolling tide. He did not know it, nor see it, but a blue aura flared up around him for a few seconds. The flare was so fast that both men did not see it, and it could just be chalked up as one's eyes playing a trick on them. He threw his head back and roared a roar of defiance that shook the ground. There was so much of it. It was too much. The energy began to burn wherever it touched in Kisame's body. His organs, his muscles, his skin. They were all feeling the effect of the strange energy that had suddenly filled Kisame. Kisame did not have the slightest clue of where the power came from, but knew that if he didn't end this now it would burn him from the inside out. He gritted his sharp teeth together, and funneled the energy into his technique in one last push. He yelled, again in pain as the power rushed and sloshed through his body into his arms, and out through his hands that left Kisame in unimaginable pain._

"_**YAAAHHH,"**__ Kisame roared to the heavens in pain and effort, and the ground caved around his feet as a result of the energy output._

_What Kisame did not know was that he had no control over the new and mysterious power, and as a result it became unstable as it exited through the stream of chi Kisame was already outputting.. A pure invisible wall of energy flew out and away from the epicenter of the collision, and collided with the currently vulnerable bodies of Masaru and Kisame. The explosion of the two warring constructs completely obliterated the ground beneath them the force of the backlash was so great that it knocked both of them off of their feet and a good amount of feet away. They both landed unceremoniously on their backs and couldn't find it within themselves to stand, and that leads us to the current situation._

_End Flashback_

"_What was that power I felt, and where did it come from?" _Kisame wondered. Kisame groaned again as he tried to sit up, but couldn't due to the temporarily state he was in. Kisame felt inside of himself and quickly deduced that he had overloaded his chi pool and nerves throughout his body with his last move. He guessed that was gonna happen as he had to put everything and more he had into the already taxing technique because the cards were stacked against him from the get go with Masaru being a fire bender, and him, Kisame, being a water bender.

As Kisame lied on his back, staring at the now red sky, he wondered what exactly caused this phenomena, and why he suddenly felt as if he was missing an entire half of his soul, of his very being. He thought that it might've been exhaustion, but immediately threw that theory out of the window as he usually recovered quite quickly from those cases

As Kisame felt his body recovering very slowly, he felt it, or rather the lack of it. His chi pools, his very source he used for water bending, was not. Kisame tried to find a plausible reason for this strange, this heart stopping occurrence, and, as he stared up into the night sky, he found the reason. **THE FUCKING MOON WAS GONE!**

"_What in the world. How is that possible," _Kisame thought in shock as he stared up into the night sky. He knew it wasn't a new moon as today was supposed to be a full one last time he checked. How does the moon just disappear, and, more importantly, Where did it go? Kisame's thoughts were cut short as he heard a yell of rage come from Masaru.

Kisame smirked at that as, with the yell, he could tell Masaru was in the same position as him.

"You still alive over there? That ass kicking I gave didn't kill you, did it?" Kisame asked in amusement.

"Oh shut your mouth you fish-man," Masaru responded sharply," You're in the same position as me, so you have no room to run your mouth."

Kisame had to acknowledge that point as it was true.

"True, but what was that earlier about turning me into ash, hmm? I'm still here in one piece."

"Why can't you just die! I put everything I had into that technique, and you are still here," Masaru complained more to himself than anything," What are you? Who are you, actually?"

Kisame hmm'd at the questions, and decided to answer them as there would be no harm in it. Before he answered it though, he asked his own.

"Why do you want my name?"

"So I can remember the name of the one man that could go toe to toe with me, and put me in such a state." Masaru answered.

Kisame obliged, and gave Masaru his name.

"My name is Kisame, remember it." Kisame said with a smirk.

"I will remember it so I know what to put when I mount your head on my wall," Masaru promised.

"Ha-ha!" Kisame laughed," In your dreams is the only place where that'll happen. I'll rip your head off with my own teeth before you mount mine on your wall."

"Rip my head off?" here Masaru chuckled, No thank you. I like my head where it is, and so do the ladies. I bet you don't get any ladies with the way you look. Am I right?"

Kisame growled as Masaru broke out into laughter at Kisame's response. If Kisame was a lesser man he would be slightly hurt at that, because it was true. He only had one friend his age in the entire village, since the other kids wouldn't play with him because of how he looked. As he grew up he quickly had to gain some thick skin, as some of names he was called actually hurt. Nowadays though he could care less about how he looked. He still had a few people that didn't care about how he looked, and they were the ones that mattered.

As Masaru's chuckled began to die out, as a result of what he said losing its comedic value Kisame asked him a question. Why? Because he needed a second opinion on what was happening, and he was the closest individual.

"Hey," Kisame called out to Masaru," do you know why the moons not in the sky?"

Masaru moved his head towards the sky and look towards what Kisame was talking about, and could clearly see that the moon was gone and the sky was red. How did he not notice that?

"What the hell?! The fucking moon is gone," he acknowledged in shock.

"That's the same thing I said. Do you have any clue as to why," Kisame asked again.

In any other situation Masaru would not answer Kisame's question, but the moon being gone was a serious problem that would affect everyone in the world. It would upset the balance, as his uncle would say.

"I have no ide-," Masaru's answer died in his throat as he began to put together the pieces of what he was remembering. He remembered admiral Zhao talking to father about his plan to beat the Water Tribe, and he distinctively remembered Zhao saying something about doing something was permanent. A few weeks before that Masaru saw Zhao with a scroll that Masaru caught a glimpse of. It was a quick peek, but Masaru saw the words moon, ocean and spirit on it. He of course put the words together and came up with the moon and ocean spirits. He asked his uncle about them, and, to Masaru's surprise, his uncle knew a lot about them.

(_Flashback)_

"_Uncle?" Masaru called to his Uncle, interrupting his daily tea time._

_Iroh looked up from his tea cup to see what his oldest nephew was trying to get his attention for. He saw nothing in his hands, and quickly deduced that he must want to talk about something. Iroh put his still steaming cup of Jasmine tea down and gave his attention to his nephew._

"_What is it, dear nephew?" Iroh asked as he looked over his nephew._

"_What do you know about the moon and ocean spirits?" Masaru asked in casual._

_Iroh was curious as to why his nephew had a sudden interest in those two specific spirits out of them all. Those ones in particular are closely related to the water benders and not fire benders, so why would he want to know anything about them?_

"_And what brings this sudden interest on, nephew?"_

_Masaru thought about lying, but quickly decided against it because his uncle had an uncanny ability to tell when either of his sibling and him were lying ever since they learned how. No matter how good they got at it they could never pull one over on their aged uncle, so they decided as one to just stop trying._

_Masaru sighed and ran a hand through his hair in an effort to relieve the stress that has been building over the little mystery he was trying to solve._

_He brought his hand down from his hair and spoke up._

"_I saw three words, moon, ocean, and spirit on that scroll that Zhao has been reading nonstop these past few days. I did a little digging myself and came to the conclusion that he must be reading about the moon and ocean spirits Tu-," Masaru here was cut off by his uncle._

"_Tui, the Moon Spirit, and La, the Ocean Spirit. Yes I know a few thing about them nephew," Iroh quickly came up with an idea of what his nephew wanted to know but decided to act clueless for the time being," But my question still stands nephew. Why the sudden interest? Those words on that scroll could just be a coincidence and mean completely nothing, and Zhao could just be reading an interesting scroll for fun. You know nephew reading isn't just for old people past their years, right?" He teased at the end._

_Masaru cracked a small smile at the tease, but quickly wiped it off as he got serious._

"_You know as well as I do uncle that anything that has caught Zhao's interest as much as that scroll has is anything but light reading. And with the siege/invasion coming closer I can't help but think that Zhao reading that scroll is anything, but a coincidence." Masaru relayed to his uncle._

"_Ahh, so that's what this is all about. You're suspicious of Zhao's activities, and with him heading the coming ever so closer invasion, those words on that scroll mean even more, am I right?" Iroh said as the pieces all fell into place into his mind._

_Masaru nodded without saying a word as he stood there waiting for his uncle's decision._

_Iroh stroked his chin a couple of times as he went over the situation his nephew was dealing with to himself. Zhao is notorious for being a little too ambitious in his endeavors, and with the Moon and Ocean Spirits being mentioned in that scroll it could be more than just a coincidence. With that in mind Iroh decided to tell his nephew what he wanted to know._

"_I think you should sit down nephew and have some tea with me before it gets too cold, hmm? It would be a shame to waste such good tea, and plus we haven't shared a good tea session in a few years," Iroh stated to his nephew, and indicated for him to sit with a wave of his arm._

_Masaru took his uncle's invitation as his version of saying yes and sat down in the tradition style on his knees. _

"_**I remember the last time me and uncle actually sat down like this," **__Masaru thought to himself,"__** I was so young and I remember that day as the day father started my training officially. That was the last time I ever got some free time."**_

_Masaru took the cup that was offered to him by his uncle, and took a sip of the still warm tea. It was still as good as he remembered it to be. His uncle had always made surprisingly good tea. One would think that such a successful general, and the nicknamed "Dragon of the West" would not have making and drinking tea as a hobby. Masaru could've taken all day to enjoy his tea, but he had to get down to business._

"_Uncle, you were gonna tell me about the Moon and Ocean Spirits," Masaru interrupted._

_Iroh set down his tea cup with a clank and began to stroke his chin in an attempt to remember all if what he had heard of those two specific spirits. The proverbial light bulb went off and he remembered._

"_The Moon and Ocean Spirits, Tui and La. It is said that those two spirits, on their own, created and gifted water benders with the power to water bend. They are to us as the dragons are or the moles for earth benders. It has been rumored that those two spirits in particular left the spirit world, giving up their immortality, to come to the mortal plane and help maintain the harmony and balance between the moon and the ocean currents. Now I do not know how much of that is true nephew, but that is all I know about what you're asking. With that knowledge have you came to any conclusions, hmm?" Iroh finished._

_Masaru was currently locked in a deep train of thought as he went over this new information._

"_**The spirits are actually in the mortal world, and gave up their immortality to keep some semblance of balance. I would think that is true, because all good rumors are based off of some sliver of truth no matter how small," Masaru thought to himself," So with that in mind, and assuming Zhao knows the same thing, what could he be doing."**_

_Masaru heard a snap in front of his face and was forcefully thrown out of his thoughts by his uncle's amused face._

"_You seemed to be thinking pretty hard their nephew. I think I saw smoke come out of your ears for a second," Iroh joked and chuckled a bit," So have you came up with any theories?"_

"_Nothing concrete uncle, but you will be the first to know that all of my ideas are not so good. I think Zhao this time will do something that will be catastrophic." Masaru replied to uncle with a scowl on his face._

_Iroh just hmm'd at his nephew's words and began drinking his tea again. Masaru began, too, to drink his cup of tea to try to ease the bad thought that were circulating through his head. They both polished off their cups of tea rather quickly considering they were both in deep thoughts. No words were said as they both put down their cups of tea as one and locked eyes. They both got up of their knees and walked around the small table that held their tea. They gripped each other's wrists and went in for a manly hug._

"_It was good to sit down and have some tea with you again nephew. I do hope that you make the time to visit this old man again. I fear that your younger brother and sister will not any time soon," Iroh said somberly but happily to his oldest nephew._

_Masaru just smiled at that and said," Why don't you just force them to like you did me old man. Let them know that your old age doesn't mean a thing in terms of ability."_

"_No matter how much I would want to make your siblings eat some humble pie, I think your mother would rise from the grave and drag me back down with her for harming her kids," Here Iroh and Masaru chuckled as they reminisced, "and even though I'm old I'd rather not go onto the next journey anytime soon."_

"_I could still see some of that youthfulness you had uncle when you imprinted my face in the courtyard all those times."_

"_Ahh yes, good times those were," Iroh looked at his nephew and almost busted out in laughter at the deadpanned look his nephew was wearing. Iroh's laughter seemed to be infectious as Masaru started to laugh a bit also. The laughter died down as a sense of sadness filled its place._

_Masaru looked at his uncle with sad eyes," I miss her so much uncle. The others might have their memories, but I was the oldest and knew her the best out of all of us."_

"_I know nephew the pain your feeling will never fully go away, but it will dull. In my eyes I use that pain as a constant reminder of how much I loved them, and how much they affected me. In moments like this I remember the good times and the bad times I had with them. All you can do is stay strong nephew with the knowledge that it will get better."_

_Masaru just nodded with a small smile, and hugged his uncle with a level of affection that was private between the both of them. Unknown to the both of them, though, this would be the last time for a while that Iroh would receive such a hug from his nephew._

_(Flashback end)_

"_That bastard Zhao probably has something to do with this_," Masaru concluded to himself in thought as he surveyed the red sky.

He snapped himself out of his thoughts as he heard Kisame's voice again. Masaru decided to tell him out of the fact that he hated Zhao, and did not want his blunder to ruin the world.

"It was probably admiral Zhao who did this. He had been known to always go to the extreme..." here Masaru trailed off as the scope of what Zhao probably had done was too wide," but I never thought that he would take the moon out of the sky."

Kisame took in what Masaru said, and asked for a description of Zhao.

"How does this Zhao character look?" Kisame asked with a slight angry undertone. Now he knew who did this, and as a result took away his bending.

"Oh you know big sideburns, brown hair done in a top knot, and a monkey looking face. If you see him you won't miss him." Masaru described. Now he might've been exaggerating about the monkey part, but it was just what he thought.

"Where would Zhao be right now, do you know?" Kisame poked for an answer.

"Last time I was told, he was headed towards someplace called the Spirit…Oasis…"Masaru trailed off here as the blocks fell into place and he realized what Zhao had done," **He killed the moon!**"

Kisame looked at Masaru crazy. What did he mean Zhao killed the moon, and why did he have to yell it?

"What do you mean he killed the moon?" Kisame asked in disbelief.

"I mean he killed the moon. Ya know, the Moon Spirit and all that jazz. Zhao found the location of the Moon Spirit and apparently killed it if the moon disappearing is anything to go by!" Masaru rushed out of his mouth in shock.

"There are no such thing as spirits! You're a fool," Kisame declared," There has to be some logical explanation for this."

"Oh yea, well how do you explain where you got your bending from, huh smart guy?" Masaru interrogated.

"Pfft, that's just a legend that the elders tell us so we think we're special," Kisame answered.

"Humor me then, and tell me the tale."

"Well legend has it that the Moon and Ocean Spirits blessed a group of people with the ability to water bend. Afterward they decided to watch over those same group of people, and at the same time keep the balance between the moon and the ocean. They gave up their immortality, and now live in the mortal plane," Kisame told Masaru," One cannot find one without the other, and if one of them was to perish water bending would…cease…to…exist."

"Cease to exist. Exactly. And tell me Kisame, can you water bend right now?" Masaru asked in triumph.

Kisame did not say a word, and the silence was the answer he needed. Water bending was gone? No that was not possible. The very idea was unfathomable to Kisame, he was utter shocked at the notion. Suddenly he filled a sense of rage. He was filled with that mysterious power once again that burned his insides, but this time he couldn't feel it as he was in a rage.

Kisame was in a blood rage, and like a shark he could not be stopped until he killed his prey and ripped it to shreds.

In the Spirit Oasis a shiver ran down his spine as hurriedly ducked under a boomerang, and quickly side stepped a slash of wind. He did not know where that feeling came from, and couldn't really dwell on as, even without water bending, these kids were proving to be a nuisance.

Veins throbbed in Kisame's neck as his breathing became even heavier and any shred of exhaustion left his body and was replaced with a burning rage. He forced himself on his feet with the mysterious power and anger fueling his muscles and filling his pools of chi.

"_How dare that mongrel kill Tui? He is messing with powers that he could not begin to fathom! Does he not know that without the moon there will be no balance? There will be no harmony! Tui might've been a hopeful spirit, but she had a point. These humans, this one in particular needs to be shone the order of things. He will play for killing my companion, and I will make sure it is painful." _A deep powerful voice boomed through Kisame's head.

Kisame, through all the rage induced haze, was puzzled at the voice. Last time he checked he was not crazy or was going crazy.

"Who are you?" Kisame asked aloud in a gravely tone as he had to push back the anger for a moment to ask the question.

Masaru perked up at the question and wondered for a second of who Kisame was talking about, but decided to silently slip away as the aura around Kisame was getting very volatile. He knew he would get his rematch, and with that in mind he slipped away to recuperate.

"_You are able of coherent thought even in such a state? I am impressed human. But all compliments aside, you will know of my identity when the time is right, child. For now take my power and finish your task," the voice told Kisame._

Kisame was given to chance of forming a response as another surge of rage rushed through his body, and the power followed. Kisame did not know whether if it was the burning sensation he was feeling, or the fact that there was some voice in is head telling him what to do that made him even angrier but he made the decision to get to the bottom of it all when this was over.

This was not the first time he had went into blood rage. The first and only other time he had went into one was when there was a raid on the village when the military was scheduled for its monthly training day and inspection. He was about six years old That day had happened. That day was not only a day of firsts, but it was a day of lasts for Kisame.

It was the last day he had a sense of childish innocence. It was the last day he would ever see his mother figure alive again. It was the last day he would live in the orphanage. It was the last day he would see many of those kids again. It was the last day he would be looked at with wariness and disgust. It was the last day his hands would be clean. It was the last day he would cry…It also was the day he got his first real friend. It was the day he would first get to meet Pakku, and begin his training. It was the first day he got to meet the royal family. It was the day he got his first crush. It was the first day he was looked at in kindness. It was the first day in his journey to become strong.

Kisame looked back on that day with mixed feelings, but it helped shape him into the man he was today. Now the blood rage that Kisame went into that day was happening again, but this time there was no one to stop it.

Kisame gripped his head with both hands and got to his feet. He gritted his teeth in pain at this foreign energy that was doing such damage to his body. He snapped his eyes open from their scrunched up and shut position, and his pupils were slit vertically from the blood rage. His teeth grew a few centimeters and became even sharper, and he gained a small row behind his original ones. His hair spiked up even more than what it was usually, and his gills became even more pronounced. The nails on his hands started digging into his head as they became lethal weapons. In addition Kisame felt his body got through the metamorphosis of growing even bigger. His muscles became bulkier making him look more like a body builder than an athletic jock. He grew a few inches, his hands and feet also grew to accommodate the temporary body.

A thick vein in his temple pulsated rapidly as the stress of the transformation was taxing to the body even though Kisame did not feel it in his rage. Kisame threw his head back in a guttural roar of pain and rage that was heard throughout the tribe.

"**RAAHHH!"** He roared to the high heavens above.

In his cot Pakku suddenly shot up at the sound, and looked around in panic at the roar and tried to get out of the cot. A healer snapped out of the shock the roar caused, and rushed to his side and tried to urge him back in the bed.

"No, sir you must stay in your bed. Your head wound was pretty nasty and we wouldn't want the head trauma to flare up again."

Pakku was ready to deny her claims of trauma and such, but his swimming vision quickly put a stop to those thoughts. He fell back into the bed, and stayed there gazing out to where he heard the roar.

"_Spirits guide you Kisame. I will not be there this time to stop you," _Pakku prayed in his head.

In the Spirit Oasis all fighting paused as each body in there pondered as to what the roar meant.

"_What type of beast could make such a roar? What kind of monsters does the water tribe have at their dispose?" _Iroh questioned in his thoughts.

"_Wh-what was that?" _Zhao thought to himself in fear as a slight drop of sweat fell off of his brow.

"_What kind of monster is that, and what made it angry?" _were the collective thoughts of Team Avatar and Yue.

"_Kisame, is that you? What could've caused you to go into a blood rage? I pray you have some sense of control as I do not think I can stop you as you are," _Ulva thought with a sense of dread at the idea of a blood rage induced Kisame.

Back with Kisame he finally stopped roaring and snapped his eyes in the general direction of the Spirit Oasis, and with a growl, destroyed the ground beneath his feet as he dashed towards his prey. He had tunnel vision as he ate up the distance between him and his prey. Kisame literally ran through some walls that he did not have the sense of going around. Shards of ice and clumps of snow were left in his wake as the unstoppable force that was Kisame made his way to the oasis.

The group in the oasis once stopped dead as an unholy amount of bloodlust met them each with the force of a truck. They all were in a state of speechlessness as such levels of rage and anger were unheard of. The only people who had some experience with such levels were Yue and Ulva, but even then they did not feel this much the first time. As whatever it was got closer and closer the pressure became even stronger. It grabbed at their guts and twisted them. It gripped their lungs and shortened their breath. It grasped at their heart and made their blood run cold.

"Here it comes," Sokka murmured with fear circulating his body.

The ones with enough sense, Aang, Sokka, Ulva, Iroh, and Zhao's personal guard, got into a fighting position facing the entry way of the oasis. This took their attention away from the pool that held the Ocean Spirit, and as a result they missed the glow it was giving off.

They all heard the heavy breathing and knew that the beast was right outside the entry way. They heard a loud grunt, and then…silence. This puzzled all in attendance as they were sure of the danger that approached them was coming through the entry way. They thought the monster disappeared, but were horribly mistaken as Kisame dropped down in all his rage on top of one of Zhao's personal guardsmen. The man screamed horribly as his back was turned it dust at the impact, and was quickly silenced as Kisame's foot came down onto his skull and crushed it into a bloody pulp with a sickening **CRUNCH**. Katara quickly threw up at the sight of a man's head being popped like a pimple. Sokka, Aang, and Yue were only barely able to hold down their dinner at the sight as they have seen things like it before. Iroh, Zhao, Ulva, and the rest of Zhao's guard just gulped at the show of power that this man had just shown. Crushing a man's head was no small feat, and they just witnessed Kisame do it effortlessly. Iroh and Zhao watched as the beast shook the blood off of his foot and step off the dead body.

Ulva gulped and staggered backwards, as she tried to think of any way to fix this. She knew she could not force him out of the state he was in, and she knew that if he was not stopped he could potentially destroy the entire tribe. The only person that was able to do that was Pakku, and he was not there, so instead of force she decided to try to use her brain.

Kisame was now just running on his basic animalistic functions, and could barely form any high level strings of thought. All he knew was that his prey was amongst these puny weaklings. He took a deep sniff through his nose in an attempt to find just who was the dead man walking, and immediately found him. He slowly turned his head towards Zhao and pointed at him. The animal in Kisame smirked at Zhao as he could literally smell his fear, he reeked of it. He knew this man would be no challenge and that fact disappointed him. Hunting was no fun when your prey was too easy to kill.

Zhao was utterly terrified at this blue colored behemoth that just turned one of his personal ELITE guardsmen's head into an almost perfect imitation of a smashed watermelon, and when he pointed towards him he almost up and shit his pants. He looked around him, and gained a little confidence at the fact he had a good number of guardsmen still left alive. He still had around ten of them still on their feet seemingly ready to go.

If there were any positive things about those men it was their loyalty and guts. It was too bad that up against Kisame you were gonna need a little bit more than loyalty and guts if you didn't want to see your own guts.

He swallowed dryly, as his throat lost all semblance of saliva when Kisame dropped down, and commanded his men with hope that they would succeed.

"_And why wouldn't they," Zhao tried to reason to himself in his head," These are my elite guard. The best of the best. I hand chose them all personally for a reason." _

Zhao nodded to himself as his little pep talk seemed to do the trick and he seemed to straighten out a bit. He pointed a finger at Kisame, and commanded his guard with a shaky voice.

"K-kill him," here Zhao seemed to actually gain some sort of backbone and swallowed his fear," Kill him! Put that beast down!"

At Zhao's command his guard attempted to do just that. As one they rushed Kisame knowing that they had the ability to kill this one measly man. There was ten of them, and only of him. One did not have to do the math to guess who the odds favored.

Those poor fools.

Kisame heard the command and looked at Zhao's personal guard as they rushed him as one. He did not give the men an opportunity to think what had happened because suddenly one of their own was missing an arm. Kisame dropped the twitch limb from his grasp, and looked at the shocked troops, and screaming one, as they stopped in their tracks. Kisame just grinned at them with his knife filled smile and rushed them again.

They were given no chance to react as Kisame grabbed the man whose arm he tore and gripped him by his neck. With no second thought, and with one hand, Kisame snapped the man's neck with a sickening **CRACK **that made everyone queasy. Kisame dropped the now dead man and gazed towards the soldiers, or rather the new meat shields, and suddenly blurred away. He reappeared behind one of them, and spit something out of his mouth. It was the soldier's throat!

From there it descended into bloody mess filled with limbs, and blood, and by the end of it Kisame was covered in gore. The group quickly looked away as they did not want to see such a site, and didn't want to turn back around. A blood rage induced Kisame suddenly stiffened as he surveyed the area. Zhao had escaped his wrath in that little episode. The worm had wriggled away as his own men were slaughtered. He would not escape justice.

Suddenly the avatar was alight with blue and white as he underwent the transition into the avatar state. The avatar, with his lit with the color blue, suddenly waded into the pool. The pool began to emit a dark blue color as Aang's avatar state mixed its energies with the Ocean Spirit's, and the Ocean Spirit's wrath took form. A giant, glowing, blue Koi fish? The Koi fish, or Koizilla waded its way acroos the battlefield, and began to wash away the Fire Nation with its god like power and control over the ocean. It slowly moved away from the Spirit Oasis with the outer wall as its destination.

The others watched this with utter amazement. They had never seen such a spectacular even take place in their entire lives, and probably would never again. Their attention was once again taken by a glowing, but this time it was coming from Kisame. It was like he was going into an avatar state of his own. His eyes began to glow blue, and his body was oozing out the same color in the form of wisps that seemed to be moving towards his back. Kisame suddenly threw his head back in a silent scream of pain, and the light began to shine out of his mouth as well. The wisps began to become even thick and were staring to take the shape of a large something on Kisame's back

"_Wh-what is happening to you Kisame?" _Ulva worried to herself. That was her best friend out there seemingly in a lot of pain. Kisame was the toughest sonuvabitch she knew, granted she didn't know that many people in the first place, but she had never seen him in such pain before. It almost hurt to watch. What was going on? Why was he glowing? All these question bounced around in her head as they had no answer.

Everyone suddenly had to cover their eyes or risk being blinded as Kisame glowed bright. Kisame's head dropped, his mouth closed, and his body went slack. Like a chopped down tree Kisame's boneless body teetered for a moment before collapsing face down onto the floor with a smack. When he fell on his face he revealed he now had a large bundle that had a skull tipped handle on his back. The giant bundle was shaped like a popsicle and was covered with bandages. The oddest thing, though, was that it seemed to wriggle by itself every few seconds. It seemed to be almost…excited.

* * *

So, a rather quick update if I do say so myself. I just wanted to get the seige over with and move on and continue the story. So, we learn some things, new and old, and get even more mysteries. If you noticed I did change some things from canon because well this is an AU and it all has a point and conclusion. It all connects, and at the end we get a little surprise... Anyways thanks to nightmaster000, GlitterVan(love the name by the way), and The Baz for taking the time to review my work.

The Baz- Kisame will not pull an Alucard and rip Masaru's head off. Masaru holds a big piece of Kisame's part in the ATLA storyline, and is more important than you realize.

Thanks again to GlitterVan and nightmaster000 for the kind reviews and I will try my best to make sure every chapter I put out is up to standard and beyond. So have nice rest of the day peeps, and I'll see ya soon. Coolness121 out! (drops the mic)


	7. Chapter 7: Revelations & The Mission

"Wh-what is that thing?"- Speech

"_This is such an odd sword, but damnit if I don't love it!"-Thoughts_

* * *

"Ugh," was the first noise that came from Kisame's mouth as he stirred from his state of unconsciousness. As Kisame opened his crusted eyes the first thing he heard were the moans and groans of others that were injured. Those same moans and groans jolted his mind into overdrive, as it tried its best to remember just what occurred before everything fazed into black.

"_I kicked Masaru's fire spouting ass (in his book it wasn't a draw), realized the moon was __**FUCKING MISSING**__, asked Masaru if he had any idea as to why the moon was gone, and then he told me it was Zhao, I realized that spirits were a real thing, I heard a voice in my head tell me…something I can't remember right now, a burning sensation, and then nothing," _Kisame recalled to himself in order.

Kisame pondered as to what exactly caused him to black out like that. The last time he had done something like that was when he…

"Oh shit," Kisame said aloud as he realized what must've happened to him.

He went into a blood rage. The question as to why he went into one pertained in his mind as Kisame trained himself mentally, almost as much as he does physically, to not do exactly that, and even if he did go into a blood rage, that doesn't explain as to why he has no memory of what happened. The last time he went into a blood rage he had crystal clear memory as to what happened on that day. Kisame swerved his train of thought away from the blemished day, and decided to put his question on the back burner for now, and focus on what was happening right now.

He knew he was in a healing hut. His countless of times getting injured had him memorize the healing huts like the back of his hand. He stared up at the ceiling and heaved a heavy sigh out of his chest as he knew he couldn't lay there any longer, or he would go stir crazy. Kisame wasn't very patient, and sitting there waiting for a healer to come and tend to him would take too long. He needed to know what had happened. Well, if him being in a healing hut and not dead was an indication of the outcome of the battle, but he needed to know the details. What better way to get the details than from the head of the tribe himself.

Kisame threw of the thin sheet that covered his body, and swung his legs to side of the bed so he could stand and sat up right. He ran his hand through his hair, yawned, and stretched out the kinks that had formed through his body from lying still longer than usual. He brought his hand down, and his nails caught his eyes. His nails seemed to be sharper and longer than usual, and his hands felt like they were a little bigger. Come to think of it, he did feel a little taller, and just overall bigger. He stood up to assess the situation further and let the sheet fall of his form. Coincidentally there was a full length body mirror right next to his bed, so he took the opportunity to look himself over a little.

The first thing he noticed was that he did, in fact, grow a few inches. He used to be a solid 6 foot, 6 foot 1, but now he was a strong 6'4 with an even bigger body than before. His what used to be lean swimmers body was now a muscular chiseled picture of strength. His entire upper body was as chiseled as one of those statues he heard about from a refugee from the earth kingdom. His arms were more defined and one could see the muscle and he seemed to have grown some more gills, six in all, on his shoulders. He had an eight pack going on also, and his legs were not left out of the equation either, as they got their own little upgrade and now looked more like thick tree trunks with giant calves. He turned around and looked over his should to gaze at his back, and flexed for a second. His entire back was now rippling with compact muscles that just seemed to scream strength, and the scar he had on his shoulder blade made it look even more appealing.

"Eh hem," someone cleared their throat to the side of Kisame.

His observations now interrupted, Kisame looked over to see just who decided to garner his attention.

"Ah, Ulva. What are you doing here?" Kisame asked as he looked down at her," You don't look injured, or tired so what are you doing here?"

Ulva just raised a perfectly shaped eyebrow as a response and waited for him to realize just what she was here for, or rather who she was here for.

It didn't take long for Kisame to realize that she was there for him.

"Oh," he realized rather lamely and Ulva giggled a little," You're here for me, right?"

As her giggles died out Ulva took a serious look and nodded her head.

"Yea," she drawled," Arnook sent me to see if you were up, and if you were to escort you to the main hall so you two can speak about important business or whatever," Ulva informed Kisame.

Kisame took in the information and nodded his head at it. Arnook wanted to speak to him. That just made it easier on Kisame, as he wanted to speak with him as well. He turned around to get ready, and spotted some fresh clothes laid out for him on the stand next to his bed. He was perplexed, because next to his clothes was a giant…something wrapped in white bandages. Kisame stepped towards the bundle, and quickly stopped as it vibrated a little bit and shook the stand. He wanted to get more answers as to what exactly he was staring at and decided to ask Ulva.

"Ulva," he called to her.

Ulva stopped her talking with one of the healers and looked over to where Kisame was and noticed him warily eyeing the bundle. She deduced that he wanted some questions as to what it was and told him.

"Oh that thing. I have no idea what it is exactly. I just know that it was a bitch and a half to get off of your back. The guys that tried had to get their hands bandaged up as the thing shot spikes out of its handle at whoever tried to grab it." She told him.

As she was telling him she walked over by his side to join him in his gazing at it. As she stood next to him, Ulva realized that Kisame was freaking huge. Like bigger than normal. She followed up on those thoughts and voiced them.

"Kisame, did you do some growing these past few days, cuz you seem taller than usual?" She asked/ joked. The more she actually looked at Kisame the more differences she noticed in him. Like how his arms seemed more like muscular cannons, and his upper body was more defined and muscular.

"_Hot damn," _She thought to herself in amazement as she devoured Kisame's new form with her eyes. All the way from his perfectly shaped abs, his defined pectorals, and his ruggedly handsome face that seemed a lot sharper than before. And were his teeth bigger? She had always loved his teeth, as they were always pearly white, and she liked sharp things. Overall this new Kisame look, dare she say it, fucking sexy.

"_Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa," _she quickly backtracked,"_ bad thoughts. You stop that right now. He is just my best friend," _She brought her gaze back to his newly improved form,"_ My hot totally gorgeous best friend who I am not currently not having these thoughts about." _

Ulva quickly shook her head to free her mind of the dirty thought that filled, but were they so dirty. Kisame had always had a great body, and she caught herself staring more times than she could count after their secret training sessions together. Personally she thought the idea was stupid, and had the feeling that Pakku knew about it the whole time, but that's for another time. She just never got such a view like she was getting right now of it back then. Plus they were just kids that wanted to be freaking awesome!

"_But now…,"_She trailed off in thought as she realized for the first time that they were both young adults now, and know more about feeling and stuff like that. She herself never really cared about boys like some of the other girls did, as her mind was mostly focused on her training with Kisame. She also didn't understand how those so called pretty boys were such heart throbs. If you asked her, she liked a man that would and could get his hands dirty when the time called for. She wanted a man that wouldn't treat her like a princess, and more like an equal. It would also help if he looked like he wouldn't cry if he broke a nail or something.

"_Or had a body like this,"_ She added in thought as she was once again captured by those abs, but damnit if they weren't the best abs she had ever seen in her entire life or would ever see.

**SNAP SNAP**

The snapping of fingers in her face brought her out of her trance like state, and she quickly came back to reality.

"Huh, wuh," She garbled out as her mind raced back into place.

"Are you okay, Ulva? You're looking a little hot there, and you got some drool coming out of your mouth. Are you sure you don't need to be in one of those beds and not me?" Kisame finished with a poke at her speechless state and chuckled a bit at her dazed state.

Ulva look down at her limp lip, and see the drool that was coming from it. She quickly wiped the drool away into oblivion as fast as she could in an attempt to reduce the embarrassment she was currently feeling.

She heard Kisame's chuckles and her embarrassment levels grew to even greater heights. She socked him in the arm in an attempt to silence them, but the punch resulted in him laughing even harder.

"J-just shut up Kisame," she tried to command but the stutter lessened the effect dramatically," Shut up or I'll bury you up to your neck in snow and leave you there."

She somehow found her resolve as the threat sounded clear in Kisame's ears and he immediately stopped laughing lest he tempt fate. He knew she'd do it, and he knew she knew that he knew that she would. That didn't stop him from glaring at the smug smirk she now had plastered all over her face. She saw the glare directed at her and smirked even wider as she knew he wouldn't do anything about it. Ulva decided though that enough was enough and Kisame really needed to get a move on.

"Just don't worry about the thing too much. I'll fill in some of the blanks that Arnook can't once we get there. Just focus on getting ready, and put on a shirt already. You're in the presence of a female," Ulva told him sternly.

Kisame just shot her a confused look on his face as he really didn't understand why he needed to put on a shirt as she had seen him countless of times without a shirt on, and he didn't see the problem of him not having one on. Was he repulsive or something? Did she think him to be ugly? He honestly did not care either way as him, specifically, having pride in his looks was thrown out into the ocean to drown at a young age as he was constantly teased about his blue skin and gills. So eventually he just stopped caring about how he looked as he knew everyone else's opinion of him would not change in the slightest unless by some miracle his skin turned normal, and he lost all of his shark like features. And why would he do that? He happened to be fond of the way he looked, as he liked the way some people jumped back in fear at his smile. Now that was funny.

Either way he just decided to listen to Ulva as he knew he had to hurry up and met with Arnook as he did not want to be clueless of what had transpired any longer than he has been. He quickly three on his sleeveless tank top, that secretly had an extra layer of think padding that acted as armor, and his leg and arm warmers. He strapped on his sandals, as he had to strap them and tighten them closed around his ankles less he risk them always flying off, and went over a mental checklist to make sure he had everything.

"…_Sandals, check, and sword," _On reflex he reached over his shoulder to check to see if it was there and only grabbed at air. At that moment he was reminded of the loss he suffered at the hands of that bastard Masaru. He knew at the moment that he couldn't do a thing about it, or get a replacement as no one in the tribe knew how to make that specific type of sword. He brought his fist down from over his shoulder and just clenched it in anger as he felt naked without his weapon of choice. He was getting ready to leave he looked at that bundle that was tilted lying next him on the wall. Seeing as it was important in his quest to get answer he grabbed the handle and holstered it on his back.

Ulva was given no time to even try to prevent Kisame from grabbing the dangerous thing as he already had his hand wrapped around the skull tipped handle. She cringed and waited for the sound of pain that was most likely to come, but as she waited with baited breath there was no painful sound of anything thing. She snapped her eyes to Kisame and saw that he had the thing on his back, like when she first saw it, and was showing no signs of discomfort. Her eyes widened in surprise at the fact that he was not hurt by the mysterious bandaged bundle, and couldn't keep the surprise off of her face.

Kisame saw the look of surprise she was giving him, and silently wondered to himself why he was getting such a look. He quickly remembered though that she had said the bundle stabbed anyone that got close to touching the handle of it, and chalked her surprise to him not having holes in his hand. Kisame quickly made sure that the sword was secured, as it somehow stuck to his back without a harness or anything. He really didn't want to question as he knew when to take what you got, and to not question it.

Once he had made sure that the bundle was secured, he started on his way out of the hut. As he made his way out the door he heard the hurried steps come from behind him. Not stopping, he glanced over his shoulder to see Ulva trying to catch up with him. He must've left her still in shock, oh well. He turned his head back around and kept on walking because he knew that she would catch up with him. He wasn't going that fast in the first place. As he heard her footsteps fall in sync with his own he spoke up.

"So what all happened when I was out?" He started with the question.

Ulva swung her head to look at Kisame, and after a moment swung it back to stare at the path ahead. She sighed and rubbed the back of her head, as it was a habit.

She spoke up," A lot happened Kisame. You've been out for a good few days, and there are some things that the chief wants to tell you up front. I can tell you that the avatar and his friends are gone," here Kisame raised an eyebrow at that as he wondered where they went," and Pakku went with them. He said to tell you that he probably won't be back to see you off, as he was going off to visit an old friend or something in the south."

Here Kisame interrupted her as he was curious.

"Wait, okay so where did Pakku send the avatar and his group to?" He asked.

"He said that he was going to give them directions for Aang to potentially find an earth bending teacher. He mentioned something or someone that sounded like King boobie, but I wasn't really paying close attention," she answered and laughed in embarrassment.

Kisame also chuckled at her air headedness

"Yea, now where was I? Oh yea, Pakku said to ask Arnook for your going away present or something since you guys probably won't be seeing each other for a while. Oh, and he said to brush up on your Pai-Sho, and to remember the White Lotus or something weird like that. According to those important guys who do all of the boring stuff, we were able to successfully evacuate the civilians in time, and, as a result, keep civilian casualties to a minimum. Last I heard the only problems they had were a guy with a twisted ankle from running so fast and tripping and a few people with minor burns," she tapped her chin in an attempt to remember, " though I think I remember hearing one of them having lost an arm because the burn was so severe." Ulva as she kept walking with Kisame.

Kisame also hmmd in a similar fashion as he digested what she said. He did have one question though, as she forgot to mention it.

"What about our military? How are they holding up?"

She moved her hand in a so-so manner," Eh, as good as one can expect after an event like this. Surprisingly enough there wasn't that many that were injured. Most either had a severe case of exhaustion or were dead so the healers were able to focus and get the injured back on their feet. With the extra hands, and with the civilians even helping, we are well on our way back to being 100 percent."

Kisame was only half paying attention as he was focused in the destruction that he was gazing at. During the whole fighting part he really didn't get the time to see what was cracked, destroyed, burned, or melted, but now, as the fighting was over and everything was once again calm, he could take in the scope of things. And there was things to take in that's for sure. He saw soldiers and civilians working together with fervor to rebuild all they had lost.

Kisame's attention was grabbed by the sound of sobbing. He turned towards the source saw two women, one older than the other if her greying hair was any indication, sobbing into each other's arms. They grieved in a dejected manner that let their feelings be known to all that heard. These two despairing individuals sobbed and bawled out their broken hearts that created a somber scene for Kisame. He himself had not cried only once that he could remember so he knew at least part of what they were going through.

His heart went out for them, but he knew there was nothing he could do to help. He just wasn't versed well enough in these kinds of situations. So, with a heavy heart, he just moved in. He swallowed the constricting lump that was forming in his throat and got to walking with Ulva by his side. They both didn't say a word about the two women. In fact they didn't say anything the rest of the way, as all words had left them for the moment after witnessing the somber scene.

Kisame and Ulva got to the main hall in no time, and were immediately escorted to Arnook's office by two guards. The guards led them up the stairs to Arnook's office and stopped at the door. Kisame saw the guards step aside to either side of the door and stay there in mute silence. Kisame gave his companion a confused look, and she just indicated for him to knock on the door. Getting the message Kisame knocked on the door, and waited for the acknowledgement to enter. They heard the muffled "Come in", opened the door, and were greeted with the site of Arnook's back.

Arnook was standing there look out the window that held a view of the entire tribe. He had his arms behind his back as he gazed out at the crippled tribe in a somber mood. Kisame was getting irritated with the mood the room, and quickly wanted to move past it and get to business.

"You wanted to see me Arnook," Kisame said in an attempt to break the ice.

Arnook seemed to come back to reality at the words as he shook his head side to side once and turned to officially greet his two guests. This was Kisame's first time seeing Arnook since the beginning of the attack, and he looked absolutely terrible. Kisame could see his goatee was disheveled, his hair was tacky and knotted, and he had deep dark circles under his eyes that indicated a lack of sleep. Overall, Arnook look like shit. Kisame couldn't help but let his observations known.

"You look like shit, chief," Kisame said with about as much tact as a hammer.

He was immediately punched in the arm by Ulva because of his comment and rubbed it in an effort to ease the pain she dealt to him. What, she punched better than some dudes.

"Ow!" Kisame complained," What was that for?"

Ulva crossed her arms and replied sternly," You don't just say that to the chief like that. He is our leader and you need to respect him."

Kisame rolled his eyes at her comment," Oh, and what do you know about respect? The last time we came in here to talk to the chief you fell asleep."

She scoffed at the point he made," So what if I did? We both know he likes to drone. I at least don't make rude comments about how he looks."

"Rude comment? I was just making an observation. He looks like shit, and I let it be known. I'm not gonna lie to him about it."

"You don't have to be so tactless about it. You were about as blunt as a hammer"

"I'm not gonna tip toe around. If he looks like shit he looks like shit. I call 'em as I see 'em. I'd do the same for anybody else," Kisame declared as a finality as he closed his eyes, crossed his arms, and turned away from her.

Ulva raised an eyebrow at him in question," Oh really?" She saw him nod," Well what do you think about me hmm?"

Kisame looked towards her and was about to open his mouth to answer, but his response died in his throat as he noticed the dark aura that was emanating from her. She still had a calm polite smile on her face, as if she was still waiting for his answer, but Kisame knew he would have to tread lightly less he risk opening the Pandora's Box that was hidden behind that smile…it also didn't help that he swore he saw something move behind her. He eventually answered her with a wary look that got even worse as he saw Arnook slowly inch away from her. They caught eyes and a silent conversation was bounced back between them.

Kisame gave Arnook a look that pleaded for his help, as Kisame himself had no experience dealing with a situation like this. Arnook knew he couldn't leave his fellow man to face a furious yet calm women on his own so he decided to help. Arnook stood behind Ulva and gestured with his hands for Kisame to say what he acted out. Kisame understood just what Arnook told him to do, but his gestures were a little…subpar. Kisame could tell he was trying his best, and Kisame tried his best to relay whatever the hell Arnook was trying to get at.

"Well Kisame I'm waiting," Ulva said in her eerily calm and polite tone that somehow promised pain and misery to whoever crossed her. Kisame almost jumped out of his skin as he tried to understand Arnook's gestures even quicker. He was running out of time, and knew that a second longer would have him being taken by that thing that was still floating around Ulva…did that thing just smile at him. He gulped and took the dive hoping for the best.

"Errr…I uh think that you have an amazing facial structure and features that are correctly proportional," Kisame didn't see Arnook drop his head in disappointment and start to pray to whoever to spare this foolish man.

All Kisame got from that was a raised eyebrow that asked the question, what else?

Kisame was sweating now as he tried to conjure up something from that untapped corner of his mind that gave out compliments. That corner was completely unused and almost dead as compliments from Kisame were few and far in between. As sweat dripped down his forehead Kisame knew he needed a miracle, so he decided to say fuck it, and tell her the truth. If he got devoured by whatever that thing was then so be it. He would go down swinging though.

"Um, I uh think you are visually appealing with a mean streak a mile wide," here the miasma grew a bit but Kisame was quick to recover," B-but I like that about you."

The words gave Ulva pause as they were something she wasn't expecting to hear. She knew Kisame wasn't good with compliments or anything not rude in general, and she half suspected that Arnook, who stopped his praying to hear what Kisame had to say, had a hand in trying to help Kisame say what he thought about her. But the sincerity and honesty she felt in the words made her really think that they were from the very, very bottom of Kisame's rough heart. She really wasn't about to do anything of he gave her some bull shit answer, but she didn't expect this from Kisame who was kinda out of touch with his fonder emotions.

"You have a mean streak a mile wide, but I like that about you. You take no shit from no one, not even me, and could kick almost every person in the tribe's ass from here to the Fire Nation and back with one hand tied behind your back while blindfolded. You were, once I learned the meaning of the word, my first friend, and the first person to see the lonely kid behind all of the gills, blue skin, and shark teeth. You are 'cute'," here Kisame paused," am I using that right Arnook?" Arnook nodded dumbly as he was stunned at what was coming from Kisame's mouth right now," and I don't know where I'd be or who I'd be without you. You're my uh best friend?"

The last part was said more as a question than a statement as she had always called him her best friend, but he had never really returned the sentiment as he thought he didn't need to since he didn't have more than two 'friends' in the entire village. She got the 'best friend' title by default. He didn't really care for stuff like that, as it was just meaningless to him, but, based on definition alone, she was his best friend.

"Did you, do you really mean that Kisame? All that you said, do you really mean it?" Kisame barely heard the question as her voice was almost a whisper as she was oddly looking at the ground with a red tint across her cheeks. He didn't know why she was suddenly acting weird, but hoped he didn't say anything offensive and or strange during his little 'speech'. He still had all his body part and that dark miasma was gone, so he took that as a good sign and ran with it.

"Heheheh," He sheepishly chuckled as he scratched the side of his face with his clawed finger," yeah I meant every word of it. You're my best friend, and I wouldn't want no one else watching my back if things got hairy. I wouldn't want anyone else to take that best friend spot from you, as I'm pretty sure they couldn't in the first place." He finished with a small chuckle in an attempt to get through the thick silence that permeated the room, as Ulva was being oddly quiet. Kisame took notice of her silence, and wondered what was wrong.

"Are you…okay Ulva?" He asked as she was being uncharacteristically quiet and, dare he say it, shy.

He raised an unseen eyebrow at her odd behavior, and could barely make out the slight shaking of her shoulders.

"Yea, I'm fine. I'm fine. I just need to uh go right now, because I promised the healers I would help them out with the injuries since I used to be one," she told Kisame in a shaky voice that sounded kind of…sad?

Kisame saw through the obvious lie, and knew something was up as she was a better liar than that. He knew that in order for her to be lying in such a sucky manner, it must be something serious. So, with a mind fill of thoughts and un-answered question, he let her go.

"Okay, I wouldn't want to hold you up any longer," He said in a low tone that conveyed to her that he knew she was bull shitting, but let her run with the obvious bull shit.

She didn't even nod her head in thanks as she bolted out of the door in an effort to get out of there in a hurry. Kisame was slightly hurt that she ran away so quick, but really couldn't focus on it as he knew Arnook had something important to tell him. Kisame turned back to Arnook and found him sitting at his desk gazing lovingly at a picture that Kisame knew from experience held a photo of him and his wife. He also knew that the one next to it held a photo of him and his daughter on her last birthday. Speaking of Yue, Kisame hadn't seen her since he had woken up, and expected her to be by his father's side.

"Where's Yue at Arnook? I half expected her to be in here fussing over how you look right now," Kisame asked with a little joke he put in for chuckles as Yue was notorious for her supervision of her dad.

Kisame chuckled a little, but those chuckles died out as Kisame noticed a pained look on Arnook's face. Kisame quickly put the dots together, but couldn't believe it.

"She-she can't be. She's not right?" The question was asked with a sense of panic and hope as Kisame wanted to be told otherwise.

His wish was woefully dashed away as the shake of Arnook's head. Kisame was shell shocked at the now known fact. She was gone. No tears ran down his face, but a heavy feeling settled in his heart. His head dropped and a shadow fell over his eyes, and he asked Arnook a single question.

"Who did it?" He asked in a low tone that demanded answers. This was a tragedy that would go not go unpunished as Kisame would not let whoever had done this walk away with their legs still attached to the bodies. Yue was his second friend in the entire tribe, and she held her own special place in his rough heart. Her white hair and kind face was the first thing he had seen when he first came to after that terrible day.

Arnook knew that Kisame wanted blood, and knew he would be disappointed when he would get none.

"No one did it Kisame. I was told she did it herself in an effort to put the moon back," Arnook told Kisame in a heavy voice laced with sadness.

Kisame snapped his head up to look at Arnook in shock and surprise. He was angry and confused at what he was just told.

"But why her? Why did she have to give her life?!" Kisame's voice raised towards the end in the form of an angry question. The scowl that grew freely across his face attributed to his very visual anger.

"Because she knew that only she could, Kisame!" Kisame's scowl flew from his face as Arnook raised his voice. Which was something he rarely did.

"There was no-one else with the ability to do such a thing," Arnook continued in a calmer tone,"She knew what she had to do to preserve all of the water bending in the entire world."

Here Arnook stopped and grabbed the picture on his desk of him and his daughter. He gently rubbed his thumb across her smiling face, and Kisame saw two tears hit the photo. Kisame looked up to Arnook's face, and he saw his eyes were showing the signs of repressed tears. Kisame saw all the emotions that ran through his eyes at an alarming rate. The anger, sadness, despair, and hopelessness at the fact he just lost his only daughter and couldn't do anything about it. For all the power that he was granted with the title of chief, he couldn't even save his daughter. That thought in Arnook's head brought another tidal wave of hurt to his heart, but he knew what he had to tell Kisame was too important. His felling could be put on hold for the moment.

Kisame saw Arnook look back up to him, and they connected eyes. Kisame could tell he was just barely holding himself together by what remained of his will. Kisame saw Arnook draw a deep breath, and then he began to speak.

"Kiyala, before she was killed, came to me with a request. She told me, when I believed you were ready, to give you this letter," Arnook opened the drawer to his left and pulled out a blank envelope. He slid that envelope over to Kisame, who grabbed it and tore it open. As Kisame's eyes ran over the letter Arnook continued to speak, and Kisame listened with open ears. After training for hours and hours Kisame was fully able to multitask his attention towards multiple things at once and remember the details of both things.

"Kiyala, despite all of her kindness and the image she made of herself as the beloved caretaker of the local orphanage, was not who you thought she was," Arnook told Kisame.

By now Kisame was finished reading the letter from Kiyala, and looked up to Arnook with sad eyes.

"Tell me it's not true!" Kisame demanded of Arnook as what he read in that letter changed too many things he previously thought of his mother figure.

Arnook did not physically respond to Kisame's outburst, as it he predicted it.

Still calm as ever Arnook continued," As you have read in the letter, Kiyala was a former member of the secret terrorist organization," there was a unintentional pause here that seemed to add to the effects the next words had," The Red Lotus. Whose prime directive, their main goal is to disrupt the human world by having spirits make their home in the mortal plane. From what Kiyala told me, they plan to turn each established nation into ruins and usher in a new world order."

Kisame, despite feeling conflicted emotions about his mother figure, heard all of this and couldn't believe. Apparently there was this super-secret organization that pulled strings from behind the scenes, and had a goal that seemed completely impossible. Despite all that was going on, each nation still had its strength and wouldn't go down quietly. Kisame's thoughts were cut off as Arnook began to speak again.

"There was something I didn't tell you that day Kisame," Kisame looked up in confusion to see Arnook slide a blood red Pai-Sho tile across his desk. The Pia-Sho tile came to a stop before Kisame, and he could see a red lotus on it.

"Huh, fitting," Kisame thought to himself as he picked the tile up and examined it's. Wait where did Arnook get this tile...

"I found that tile attached to a necklace around the neck of the man that killed Kiyala. Granted we almost missed it due to all the blood," Kisame had the decency to look sheepish,"but that tile tells us that the Red Lotus organization is real, and have the potential to become a threat if given the opportunity." Arnook said gravely. Kisame nodded his head as he could see the danger this group posed, and wanted to get his revenge on the bastards that took his mother figure away.

Arnook paused and signed as he ran a hand through his goatee.

"I hate to throw you out into the field again so soon Kisame, but I have a mission for you," Arnook relayed to Kisame.

Arnook pulled out a second Pia-Sho tile, but Kisame noticed this one was different. Instead of a blood red one, this one was a while and beige tile with a white lotus on it.

"What is this, the calling card for the White Lotus?" Kisame sarcastically asked as he examined the Pai-Sho piece.

"Yes it is. The Order of The White Lotus are the secret philosophical group tasked with sharing ancient knowledge, and keeping the harmony and peace between the human and spirit world should the avatar fail in that task. Master Pakku gave me that tile to give to you. He and I want you, Kisame, to find the grandmaster of the White Lotus and to inform him of the Red Lotus organization. I have here," here Arnook pulled out a decent sized folder and handed it to Kisame," all of the recorded sightings, occurrences, and information I have found about the Red Lotus."

Kisame grabbed the folder and skimmed through it quickly. He would read it some more when he got the chance, and settled for closing it for the time being. He now had a mission that, for all intents and purposes, seemed difficult for only one person. He voiced his concerns to Arnook quickly.

"This seems a bit much for one person Arnook," Kisame replied after closing the folder.

"Yes I know, that's why I'm having Ulva go with you. It will only be the two of you until you reach one of the rebel hideouts the Earth Kingdom set up after the fall of Ba-Sing Se. There you will meet up with a good friend of mine, and he will tell you where to go from there."

Kisame nodded, but hesitated as he realized something.

"Wait, who are we meeting up with at the hideout?" Kisame asked.

Arnook grew a miniscule smile on his face as he answered Kisame's question.

"He's the son of my good friend, you won't be able to miss him. From what I heard he's pretty well known in those parts."

Kisame just nodded his head at the vague answer, and got up to leave and get Ulva.

Arnook called out to him as he made his way out the door.

"Oh I almost forgot," Kisame had to think fast to catch the thick envelope that Arnook tossed his way. It jingled as Kisame caught it, and he realized it was filled with money. He took a peek at what was inside, and almost dropped the envelope. He had never seen that much money in his entire life. He snapped his gaze to a smiling Arnook, and held up the envelope as of to ask why.

"It's for all the expenses you might need during your trip. Don't worry about paying me back. This is a gift from me for all that you've done and will do for me and this tribe Kisame," Arnook said as he could just feel the prepared denial of the money form in Kisame's throat," They might not yet appreciate it yet Kisame, but I feel that your role in whatever is on the horizon will be bigger than either of us could ever imagine. I just want to make sure that you don't starve before you can fulfill it."

Kisame grew a small sharp smirk on his face at the little joke at the end, and stopped at the door as Arnook walked over to him.

Arnook held out his hand and Kisame took one look at it before gripping Arnook's wrist. The two men gripped each other's wrists and nodded to each other, as they both felt that they wouldn't see each other for a long time.

"Good luck Kisame," Arnook whispered to him sincerely.

"Thanks, but I think you're gonna need it more than me chief. Who else it's gonna bring these people back to their feet?" Kisame responded with a similar smile to Arnook's on his face.

The two men separated with a final nod of acknowledgement and respect, and Kisame made his way down the stairs to find Ulva. He knew this would be the last he would see of his home for a while so he decided to take his time. Kisame eventually made it to the boat Arnook had designated after collecting his belongings and realizing Ulva wasn't home. As he got closer to the boat he saw Ulva there, and realized she must've gotten ready and made her way to the ship while he was talking with Arnook.

Ulva heard his footsteps and looked up to greet him with her signature smile.

"You ready to go blue?" She teased.

Kisame forgot all about what happened before, and fell into the usual routine the two of them did. He knew they both were nervous about leaving, and the faniliar argument should help the both of them out.

Kisame growled out," Don't call me blue or I'll throw you into the ocean and leave you there."

Ulva just laughed off his threat as the ship got moving thanks to the crew Arnook assigned to help them.

"Aww, don't be so blue Kisame," She joked.

Kisame just growled and settled for looking at the slowly getting smaller Northern Water Tribe. Ulva stepped up next to him and gazed also.

"Well, there isn't any going back now, eh? Here we go," Ulva intoned to Kisame.

Kisame looked at her out the corner of his eye, and could see the emotion running through them.

"I never thought I'd leave the place I called home, but nothing's ever boring with you around is it Kisame?" She continued.

Kisame just smirked at the point she made, and continued his gazing at the place he called home. He wouldn't be seeing it for a while, and he wanted to just stand there and look at it before it disappeared behind the horizon. As their home disappeared into the horizon Ulva spoke up.

"How are we supposed to find this grandmaster anyways?" She asked in curiousity.

"Hmm, oh he said something about meeting up with a close friend of his, and he or she would inform us of what to do next," Kisame told her as she nodded along," He also said that we would be getting another member to help us find this grandmaster."

"Do you know who?" She asked.

"Nope, he didn't tell. He did say that he was well known over there."

"Well hopefully he can help us find this grandmaster, wherever he is."

Kisame just hmmd in the form of a yes, as he too wanted to find this grandmaster whoever he is. Ulva also hmmd, as the both of them settled into a comfortable silence. For the next few hours the two of them gazed out into the open sea until the moon settled into the sky. Kisame heard snoring come from his shoulder, and saw that Ulva had fell asleep with her head on his shoulder. Kisame took one last look at the moon before trying to shake Ulva up from her sleep. He shook her, but all he got was a mumbled stop.

Kisame sighed as she wouldn't wake up, and she was starting to drool. He scooped her up bridal style and carried her down below deck to where the rooms were. He kicked open the door to her room and placed her into her bed. He grabbed the furs the bed had, and placed them over her. Seeing his job done Kisame began his trek to his own room. As he walked out of Ulva's room he heard a mumbled, "thank you" come from her.

"No problem," Kisame murmured as he closed her door.

Kisame made his way to his room, and detached the still unidentified bundle on his back and placed it on the wall next to his bed. Kisame himself lied down in his own bed, and immediately fell asleep once his head his the pillow.

* * *

"**We finally meet face to face. I have some important news concerning that sword of yours."**

"Who are you?"

"**Well I'm…"**

* * *

Author's note down here and I would just like to thank all the people that took the time to review, favorite, and follow. I like seeing new faces as well as familiar ones. Well in this chapter we get exactly what the title of this chapter says. We learn some things like who the main villain is, and yes I know the Red Lotus wasn't formed until after the end of ATLA. I made it this way on purpose. You'll see how and why later on. Kisame and Ulva finally set out, and are on their way to find the grandmaster (Iroh) and to tell him about the Red Lotus. No, the White Lotus do not know about the Red Lotus, and how that's possible will be revealed later. If you don't already know Ba-Sing Se was actually conquered by the Iroh, and now there are Earth Kingdom rebels trying to get it back. What kind of problems will this cause for the Gaang and Kisame...well just wait and see. So yea, please, please, please review, favorite, and or follow this because it means a lot to see that you guys actually like this. I know this is a kind of different Kisame than what we are used to, but bare with me he is still the same old blood thirsty shark we all know. No Samehada action this chapter, but there will be some more information next chapter for sure, that's why I left it on a cliffhanger. So R&amp;R and follow and favorite please. COOLNESS121 OUT (drops mic)


	8. Chapter 8: Well Shit

"Haha, it worked! Take that ya crazy bastard!"- Speech

"_I hope this works!"- Thoughts_

* * *

I haven't actually said this before, I think, in the previous chapters (oops), but anyways I do not own the character Kisame, or any characters from the A:TLA series. Those characters are both owned by their respective creators, and the only thing I do own are my oc's.

* * *

"Who are you?" Kisame asked as he took a good few steps away from the mysterious man that had somehow found a way to communicate to Kisame. Kisame knew he fell asleep, but the question was, where did this guy come from and who was he? He took a light stance on the off chance that the man turned out to be hostile, and wanted to eat his dreams or something, but Kisame had a feeling in the back of his mind that he wouldn't be able to stop the man if he tried. He could feel the waves of suppressed power rolling off of the figure, and didn't want to find out what happened when he stopped suppressing it.

Kisame saw the man stand there with his arms crossed across his giant chest. Kisame not only took a few steps back to at least get some room, but he stepped back so he could stare at the giant of a man in his entirety. Kisame recognized that the man was way bigger than he was and Kisame wasn't small in any way, shape, or form. Where Kisame stood at a good solid approximate 6 foot 3 the man towered over him, and cast an intimidating shadow. The man's pale white hair with blue streaks running through it feel down around his ear…wait gills? Kisame narrowed his eyes and looked a little closer, and could see that the man had no ears. He, instead, had a set of gills in similar places as Kisame with the only difference of not having some on his face, but on his neck like a fish. Did that mean that the guy couldn't even hear Kisame's question? The tall man was not wearing a shirt, and Kisame doubted any shirt in existence could fit him anyway, and only wore a set of slightly loose fitting pants the enclosed themselves around his shins. No shoes to speak of, but weirdly had his toenails painted a deep blue color.

The burly man had his solid stone cold gaze set firmly on Kisame, and Kisame couldn't help but feel smaller than what he actually was. The time it took for the man to actually decide to answer Kisame's question was completely uncomfortable, and Kisame couldn't help but fidget his feet a little. Finally, he saw the opening of the man's mouth, which revealed a jaw full of shark like teeth similar to his own, and knew the man was about to answer.

When he spoke it was in a deep baritone that seemed to travel for miles and have an aggressive undertone to it.

"**Well I'm your only hope for survival," **the man revealed to Kisame.

All in all that wasn't much of an answer, but one the only caused more. The answer had a darker undertone than how it was said, and Kisame was quick to catch up on it.

"What do you mean survival?" this was of course the obvious question, and the man seemed to expect it.

"**There are malevolent forces out there that wish to cause nothing but chaos, and wish to envelope the world in their own dark shadow and have it as their play thing," **here Kisame could feel the tone of anger and disgust that slightly surfaced as the man spoke. Whatever these forces were they had earned the ire of this monster of a man, and this made him even more curious as to who they were. He wasn't given the chance to ask the question as the man quickly picked up where he left off, and that anger and disgust that he could literally feel was gone once more.

"**They wish to, in all intents and purposes, usher in an age of complete darkness upon the world as you know it. The scales that have been placed by powers greater than my own will tip, and complete chaos and destruction will rain upon this world with no one, not even the avatar, being able to stop it. The ones who oppose them have taken steps to ensure the survival of the balance of the world, and the continuation of the human race. We have realized that on our own, and without the one that is tasked with keeping the Dark One's semi-physical manifestation under lock and key, we can't succeed without each other's help," **the man informed Kisame.

All this vague new information was making Kisame form more and more questions that he desperately needed answered so he could fill in the blanks that the man was unhelpfully leaving blank. "Wait, wait, wait," Kisame made a stopping motion with his hands to pause the man from continuing any further," who is this we? Who is them, and who is this Dark One you mentioned?"

The man sighed and ran a hand through his hair as he looked frustrated. He mumbled something under his breath, and Kisame could hear the words "humans" and "stupid". A tick mark grew on his temple at the insult, but couldn't speak up as the man once again began to instead.

"**To answer the first question I will have to go into how bending was bestowed upon you humans in the first place. "We" are the spirits that have the ultimate task of keeping the harmony and balance of this world by our creators should Raava, the spirit who's main and only task is to do just that, somehow fail or is unable to do so. We are also the first ones to have what you humans call bending. When humanity was just beginning to form itself into what it is today, there was a terrible event that occurred, and it caused The Great One to create what you humans call the "Avatar" and to have us gift the ones able the ability to bend a specific element to their will. We each took to our own corners of the world, and taught the humans that inhabited the area our specific element. Now, understand this, there is a rule set in literal stone that says that we, the first spirits to be created, cannot allow humans to see us or know of our existence. That rule quickly went out the window as Tui couldn't help herself. The only ones who actually followed the rule was Agni, who somehow was able to teach dragons how to fire bend, Fei, who I still to this day don't know how he was able teach those bald guys up in the mountain how to air bend, and Tu, who taught those badger moles how to earth bend."**

"Whoa, wait so you're saying that you guys are the ones who gave humanity bending?" Kisame questioned," Didn't you guys in all your wisdom realize that one day bending wasn't gonna be used for good?"

The man, who Kisame still didn't know that name of…wait a minute. If he was one of the spirits who gave humanity bending, and he already named the ones for air, fire, and earth, which would have to make him the one who taught water bending. Suddenly he realized just who the man was. His eyes widened at the irrefutable fact that this guy was…

"**Ah I see you figured out who I was, yes?" **the man asked with a small amused smile and raised brow.

"You're La, the spirit of the ocean," Kisame answered as he would have never guessed that he, Kisame, would be speaking to someone that he didn't truly believe existed. Well seeing is believing some people say, and he was definitely believing right now. Not that he would ever admit to Ulva that she was right this entire time. She wouldn't let him live it down.

"**Yes, as you have figured out for yourself, I am La the Spirit of the Ocean. I am a part of the group that was formed a few years ago to stop The Dark One form returning prematurely, and that brings me to your next question. "Them" is or rather are the forces of evil. Yes, I know that is a bit cliché, but that is who they are. They are a group, an army, which has been constantly gaining strength and followers in the human world through the guise of The Order of The Red Lotus, the counterpart to your Order of The White Lotus. They have been hidden under the radar of human and spirits alike for hundreds of year and are finally beginning to reveal themselves to the world. This particular group has gained strength both in the human and spirit world to such an extent that they have become a grave and dangerous threat to both realms. We spirits, as the laws have dictated and been reinforced with the threat of utter wiping from existence, cannot interfere directly with the happenings of mortals, but there are loopholes."**

Kisame's sharp mind realized a loophole immediately," But they don't say that you can't indirectly interfere. That would mean that one could have a puppet or instrument that did their bidding in the human world, and that spirit would not get punished."

"**Exactly, and that's exactly what he did. That brings me to your final question. "He" is Vaatu, the complete opposite of Raava. He is the Spirit of Darkness and Chaos, and he feeds of all of the negative emotions that humans have, be it despair, rage, or envy, he is made stronger by it all. As his name might dictate, he wants to plunge the world into an extended period of darkness and death. He wants to create a domain where he would be the sole ruler of, and there would be no one that could challenge him. His entire existence is dedicated to doing just that, and should he succeed all of humanity would be enclosed in a curtain of black where no life could thrive for 10,000 years," **La said in a grave tone.

To Kisame that didn't sound too pleasing, and this Vaatu character sounded like the ultimate bad guy. He still didn't know why La was speaking to him though in this…whatever it was. His mindscape? Yea, he's just gonna go with mindscape. He voiced his curiosity right then.

"Why are you telling me all of this? What do I have to do with anything that has to do with spirits and all that jazz? I'm just a guy who looks like a shark," Kisame said in a flat tone as he didn't yet realize why he was still here. He wanted to go to sleep damnit!

Kisame saw La just grow that small smirk on his face that seemed to relay that he knew something that he didn't, and wasn't gonna tell him anyways. Kisame connected eyes with La's raging sea blue ones and heard him speak.

"**You have absolutely no clue of the potential you have Kisame. The reason I am telling you this is because the only way for us to counter act the progress Vaatu is making in the human world is to beat him at his own game. Since he has his own puppet, his own tool, we decided that we needed our own champions that could defend the human realm from his forces," **La told him,**" As we speak my comrades are having similar conversation with their own champions and are telling them the same thing. Eventually you all will meet, but now is our chance to train you guys in an effort to take care of Vaatu's constantly growing influence on your realm."**

Kisame was shocked that what he was being told right now was also being echoed to three other people, but wait a minute…

"The air benders were wiped out by the Fire Nation. Are you saying that the Fire Nation missed one?" Kisame asked.

"**Yes, one cannot fully extinguish a type of bending. There are certain laws that prevent such things from happening. When your Fire Nation wiped out the air nomads it threw off the balance of bending that was set in place. As a result, the powers set into the very nature of your world acted quickly in order to slightly restore that balance, and created a new air bender. As of right now there are only two air benders in existence, the avatar and who I am speaking about, and after Vaatu's influence is lessened more will be brought into existence."**

Suddenly La grew a crease on his brow, and a frown upon his face. As he settled into a look of concentration.

He suddenly snapped his gaze to Kisame and spoke in a hurried tone," **You need to wake up right now. I sense that the vessel you are on is in immediate danger, and so is everyone aboard. I sense some of Vaatu's influence somewhere in the mountain ranges that litter the landscape of your former Earth Kingdom with the ability to destroy your entire ship and everybody on it," **Kisame idly marveled at the mastery water benders had over ship travel as they had cut the time of travel into just a few hours, as it felt like only a few minutes have passed since he began to speak to La,**" I cannot pinpoint the location as Vaatu's power prevents me from doing so, but you must wake up right now!"**

Suddenly Kisame was back in his body on the ship in his room, and he gasped for air at the sudden switch. He quickly sat up and began to get air in his lungs as his chest felt tight and constricted. The feeling passed in a few moments, but it took Kisame a bit more before he had composed himself fully. What La had said filtered in through the uncomfortable feeling and he quickly got out of the cot, and grabbed the still unknown bundle, holstered it to his back in a comfortable position, he quickly made his way out of the room. He stopped at his nightstand, and decided that the info on the red lotus was too valuable to just leave here, so he grabbed it and left out of his room. He quickly got to Ulva's door and knocked on it with some resounding bangs that he was sure would wake her up.

He was correct as she appeared at the door in a semi-disheveled state as it was still early in the morning and the sun wasn't even out yet. He didn't quite know where the thought came from, but he couldn't help but idly notice the way the thin t-shirt she wore, which was one of his by the way as she took it one day and never gave it back, complimented her curves as it went down mid-thigh like a dress. She actually looked pretty cute. He quickly shook his head free from such thoughts as right now it was time for seriousness.

"Get dressed, we're gonna have to evacuate the ship quickly. We're being targeted."

Long ago when they were younger Ulva learned to trust Kisame with her life, as he once saved them both from a wild polar bear-dog, and didn't question him when he said that. She just nodded and went in to get dressed quickly. It took her an entirety of five minutes to get ready, as her and Kisame had practiced getting ready as quickly as possible in case they were ever in a situation where they needed to go or evacuate quickly. Soon she was out and walking with him with custom long strapped satchel across her chest as it held everything important the two needed on their journey. Kisame gave her the important folder, and after she stuffed in the satchel, they were on their way.

As they were walking up form below deck, as Kisame and Ulva knew this captain personally and he liked to get himself and his crew up before the crack of dawn, she noticed the sense of urgency that he carried himself with, and quickly pounced on the opportunity.

"What's got your pants all jumbled up Kisame? The sun isn't even up yet, and you got us both out of bed. We both know you need your beauty sleep," She joked, but Kisame heard the seriousness in the question.

He threw her a side glance, and quickly returned his gaze back forward.

He then answered," You wouldn't believe me if I told you anyways, but I know from a reliable source that we are in danger right now."

She couldn't help but be skeptic at Kisame's answer," Well what's the danger? What's got you all frazzled, and who is this reliable source?"

Kisame almost hesitated in his answer to her, but knew that if she was gonna be joining him on this mission that just got a whole lot more complicated she would need to know everything. Before he could answer though the ship was rocked and swayed drastically to the side before it settled down. Kisame and Ulva threw a look at each, and quickly hurried their way above deck. By the time they made it there the ship's crew was already hurriedly trying to put out the fire that was building in the back of the deck. They carried buckets of water with them as the water benders below deck were trying to keep the ship from flooding. Kisame and Ulva both quickly rushed over to help, but couldn't as they heard a strange noise before the explosion knocked them both off of their feet.

They both shook the deafening effects of the explosion of as they saw that the ship was now literally hanging onto itself by a thread. The front half was almost cleanly broken off and both halves were quickly burning more and more. He heard the captain try to yell out for everyone to abandon the ship, but was quickly silenced as spot where he was standing exploded in a fiery blaze. The explosion once again deafened him, and sent him tumbling across the deck into the railing on the other side. He opened his eyes and could see the utter destruction that was wrought upon this ship, as the fires raged ever stronger and threatened to consume the ship. He felt a body next to him, and almost sighed in relief at sight of Ulva being okay.

He heard her groan and open her eyes. She looked at him and gave him a thumbs up to show that she was still alive. Kisame remembered the words that La spoke, and tried to find whatever was doing this in the mountain ranges that they were once moving towards. Kisame's eyes quickly found something unordinary on one slope. It was a cloaked figure that seemed to be aiming its forehead towards the ship, more specifically him. Kisame saw the figure lean its head back and then a translucent stream came rocketing from its hood. The stream was coming in as fast as a rocket, and the only thing that saved him were his honed reflexes.

Kisame almost didn't know what he did, it was so odd. His body seemed to move on his own, and Kisame's conscious mind just watched as the event unfolded before him. He flawlessly pulled the bundle from his back, and set it firmly in front of himself in the form of a makeshift shield. He grabbed Ulva, reflexively shielded her with his own body, and braced himself.

He didn't know if whatever he was trying was gonna work, but as he braced himself against the bandaged bundle, he couldn't help but feel as if this position was familiar. In the next instant his world erupted in a series of white flashes, pain, and a feeling of weightlessness. The moment after that was filled with the noises of a splash, then complete submersion. His back and shoulders burned as his vision grew darker. He felt his body drifting farther and farther underwater, and he couldn't feel his arms or legs to move them in an effort to swim back up to the surface and to shore. He saw a dark shape slowly get bigger as it came in his direction before his eyes flickered shut and blackness engulfed his vision.

* * *

So there ya go, Ch.8 done and finished on a cliff hanger. I know it's a little short, but there are some things I need to get to in the plot before everything is revealed to Kisame. I hope the length doesn't create any problems, and I promise that the next chapter will be longer than this. To all the people that reviewed I'd like to thank you from the bottom of my heart, as your feedback is very supportive, and lets me realize that there are people that actually care about this fic. I know its not the usual Naruto crossover, featuring the ever so used, Naruto. Not that Naruto isn't a good character to use, I just wanted to try something new with a character I feel was a level 7 badass (p.s there are ten levels of badassery). I wanted something new and fresh, so that's why I made this fic.

psychopath556- thanks for the support, and I'm glad that you feel as if I implemented Kisame into the story properly. There is a possibility there, but I won't say too much. I hope you stay tuned for what's to come cuz its a doozy.

The Baz- Thanks for the constant support man(you the real M.V.P.) You just missed the nail on the head there. As you read in this chapter, instead of Spirits in mortal form, they are more like champions of the specific Spirits.

Dante's disciple- Thanks for the support and kind words, and yes there will be those much needed flashbacks that will help flesh out my oc's and Kisame's backstory more. No, thank you for actually taking the time to review this humble guys fic, and thanks for the absolutely kind words man.

So that's it for Ch.8 I hope ya'll enjoyed it, and I'll see you next chapter. COOLNESS121 OUT! (drops mic)

.

.

.

(comes back and picks up mic) and uh don't forget to review, favorite, and follow. This fic now has over 7,000 views and I can't believe 7,000 people have seen this. It's crazy man.(bows to the audience) Thank you for all the support.


	9. Chapter 9: Meet The Rebels

"I'll make sure you can't walk away this time."- Speech

"_What is that thing on his back, and why do I feel like it wants to eat me?"- Thoughts_

_I don't own anything in this story beside the my OC's. The plot is technically mine, well, some parts are._

I present Ch.9: Meet the Rebels. Enjoy

* * *

"Oh look. He seems to be waking up right now," a voice said.

Kisame groaned as he began to come to. He felt that he was currently laying on his stomach. This made him curious as he never slept on his stomach side like this. Suddenly the events of what had happened came rushing back to him, and the pain the emanated from his back did to. He felt the bandages on his back, and assumed that was the reason he was lying on his stomach currently. He could only assume that, since he felt pain and smelled a strong earthy scent around him that he wasn't dead.

"_Guess that worked then,"_ Kisame decided to himself.

As he recalled all of the events that happened he suddenly tried to rise, as he didn't know what had happened to Ulva. If he survived so did she, but he wanted to know if she was okay or not.

A pair of hands lightly pushed his shoulders down in an attempt to make him lay back down. He shook the hands off rather aggressively as he didn't like to be touched by someone he wasn't familiar with. The hands immediately retracted as at Kisame's actions, the rest of Kisame's way up was un-impeded.

"Whoa there buddy, I'm a friend. I'm just trying to make sure you get a proper amount of rest and that you don't rush yourself in an attempt to sit up. I've seen enough burns to know that they hurt like a bitch if they're aggravated too early," the voice said in a placating manner as he explained himself.

Kisame just grunted as he sat up with a hiss at the tenderness of the flesh of his back. As the pain went down he glanced to the side and looked at the guy who was standing to the side of his medical bed. Kisame looked around and could see other people in similar states as him, and deduced that he must've been in their medical station. The building was of course made of all rock, and Kisame heard the background chatter of the area make itself known in his ears. He brought his gaze back to the medic that had tried to keep him down, and saw that he was now chatting with a nurse of some sorts.

Kisame knew his own body better than any medic could, and could tell that he was only a little tender on some areas of his back. He grabbed at the bandages around his body, and ripped them off with a few tears. The man must've heard the ripping, as he rushed over to Kisame and tried to stop him.

"Sir, you mustn't do that. Your wounds…," the man trailed off as he saw the perfectly blue, and healed back of Kisame. Kisame didn't pay any mind to the man's sudden speechlessness as he quickly put his equipment back on. He grabbed at the still unknown bandaged bundle, which showed no damage from what had happened, and holstered it to his back. He turned back to the medic, nodded his head in thanks, and swiftly left the makeshift hospital.

The first thing he noticed when he left the building was the stench of the earth that permeated the area.

"_Guess we made it to the outpost,"_ Kisame realized. From there he began to just walk aimlessly taking in the sights. The outpost was like a small community of the people that didn't want to be put under the thumb of the Fire Nation. He saw the guards stationed at strategic places around the area so not one thing went unnoticed. He saw people, old and young, walking around the area and talking to each other. There were kids littered across the area playing games with one another. He even saw a group of young earth benders messing around with an older earth bender, as they tossed some rock around through the air like magic. There were no houses, but tents instead. Some were big, and some were small. Kisame guessed that houses would cause too many problems, and would be too easy to spot.

He continued his aimless sightseeing, gazing and taking in the atmosphere of the outpost, but was quickly brought out of his gazing by someone calling out his name.

"Are you the one they call Kisame?" he heard asked.

He turned to the person who asked for him, and saw that it was a rebel soldier. He had the typical earth bender build, but had a fuzzy goatee that went around his mouth, and small sideburns. His hair was put up and held up on top of his head in a little bundle. He wore an almost half poncho over his shoulders, and the rest of his attire was that of a typical earth bender. Kisame regarded the buff man with a sense wariness that he automatically had whenever he met someone he didn't know.

"And who is asking?" Kisame responded.

The man's long eyebrows furrowed almost reflexively at the question.

"It is I, The Boulder, who asks you the question. The Boulder was put up to the task of getting the one they called Kisame, and bring him to Juya's tent. The Boulder was told to look for a tall blue man with gills and spiky hair," The Boulder said.

Kisame's eyebrow twitched at the hysterical way the man referred to himself in the third person and the description of himself, but moved past it as he kept his irritation levels down. Now if the man rapped whenever he talked, that would be a problem. A phantom shiver went down Kisame's spine as the image of a big buff man rapping with sunglasses on formed in his mind. He shook the image out of his brain and focused on "The Boulder".

"Yea, I'm him. If you could find anyone else that looked like that then I'd call you crazy," Kisame quipped.

The Boulder nodded his head," That is good. The Boulder feels accomplished at finding you so quick," Kisame saw the strange man turn and indicate to follow him," The Boulder says to follow him, as he will lead you to Juya's tent. In case you were wondering, that is where your friend is. The Boulder and Jin were part of the group that rescued the two of you from your wreck."

Kisame nodded his head, as he appreciated their timely arrival, and asked," Did you find anybody besides us out there?"

The Boulder shook his head negative," The Boulder is sorry, but no. You and the girl were the only live ones we found. Anyone else was dead."

Kisame just nodded at that and went silent as he digested what he was told. He didn't mourn the lost crew, but did feel sad at their deaths. The news sparked a new fire in his belly towards finding out just who did it.

They walked in silence for a while before their trek was interrupted by the oddest sight. It was a young girl and she was being carried, apparently no willingly, by the second biggest person Kisame had seen. The man looked rather frazzled, as his patch of hair stood on end he had only four teeth like a hippo.

"Ah, Hippo, what have you got there," to Kisame his name was too fitting.

The now named Hippo took a moment to adjust the struggling girl on his shoulder before answering The Boulder.

"Dah, Hippo and friends found little girl in one of the underground tunnels used for emergency escapes," Hippo spoke in a deep, almost dumb, tone.

"_Oh no, not another one of these fools,"_ Kisame was annoyed at the fact that was just one. Now there were two!? He just couldn't catch a break.

Kisame saw the girl struggle futilely against Hippo's iron like grip.

"Ugh, put me down you oaf. You wouldn't hurt a bling girl, would you?" she yelled as she struggled.

True to her word, Kisame saw the empty pale eyes that indicated that she was truly blind.

"The Boulder feels conflicted about little blind girl. Hippo said he found her in the emergency escape tunnel," Hippo nodded yes," then she must not be as blind as she wants us to believe."

That was surprisingly logical. Kisame had to give The Boulder props as that was some good deductive reasoning. Kisame spoke up though as he saw that The Boulder and Hippo couldn't decide on what to do with her.

"Why don't you take her to your leader, or whatever, and have him decide on what to do with her?" Kisame suggested.

It was like a light bulb went off in their heads.

"That is a wonderful idea blue man. The Boulder and Hippo can get this sorted out while at the same time getting you where you need to go. It's killing two birds with one boulder."

Kisame and the girl face palmed at the lame joke while Hippo and The Boulder guffawed. He just had to have terrible rock puns too. Kisame couldn't wait to get away from these two clowns.

Kisame entered the tent, and almost sighed in relief as he saw Ulva in one piece. She did have a few bandages scattered here and there across her body, but overall she was okay and that's all that mattered. She heard the tent flap open and turned towards him. Kisame saw the relief on her face as she saw him, and flashed him a smile. He reciprocated the action, and made his way over to stand by her. With his attention off of Ulva, Kisame noticed the guy that she was talking to before he got there.

He was around the same height as him, and was very muscular. He wore a fitting sleeveless green and black vest with golden studs that went down the slight v-neck it had. He wore slightly baggy pants that flared outward a little bit, but then were tucked in and tied down with white ankle wraps. He of course wore no shoes, as no earth bender wore shoes, and had his feet out in the open. He had a slightly round chin that connected with a strong jaw. His eyes were an almond shape that were filled with jade green irises. His nose was slightly round, and just attributed more to his handsome features. His eyebrows were average sized, but his hairstyle is what caught Kisame. He had both sides shaved down low, almost to a fade, and the top was long enough to be tied into a low ponytail. It was almost water tribe style, but lacked certain things that made it so.

Kisame saw that he was standing rather close to Ulva, and something stirred in his belly at that fact. Ignoring the feeling Kisame was interrupted in his greetings of Ulva by the clearing of a throat. Kismae turned to the person who cleared their throat, and immediately realized that this must be Juya. Surprisingly enough Juya was, instead of a man as Kisame originally thought, a female. She looked to be around Arnook's age, as the growing wrinkles could attest to the fact, and had a friendly face that caught Kisame off guard. He quickly shook it off though as she began to speak to him.

"So, you must be Kisame," she started in a warm tone," Ulva has told us about what happened, and we were hoping to get your side of things. She said that you would know more than her, as you were the one to get her up in the first place."

As she finished and Kisame opened his mouth to speak there was a masculine scream of pain followed by the tent flapping open and the small girl running in. She stopped just before Kisame, and Kisame saw a small satisfied smile on her face. He wondered why she had such a smile, and then he realized why. The Boulder and Hippo walked in covered in dust and rocks with comical bumps on their heads. Everyone in the tent tried to stifle their laughs at them, except for Kisame as he was openly laughing, but were slowly failing.

Juya spoke up after everyone was done laughing, and naturally asked what had happened.

"The Boulder and Hippo were just about to bring in the girl Hippo found in the tunnels, so you could decide on what to do with her, but once Hippo set the girl down," here he paused and indicated to himself and Hippo, this happened. The Boulder is not sure how he got like this, but he has a feeling it was because of this blind girl."

Here Juya immediately stopped laughing and looked at the blind girl with a scrutinizing look. After a few seconds of gazing at her she spoke.

"Hmm, I guess you can earth bend can't you? That's how The Boulder and Hippo came in looking like this, and how you maneuvered your way through the tunnels to the patrol down there," Juya said in conclusion.

It made sense to Kisame, as he had the same thoughts. Her being an earth bender would explain a lot. Apparently there was something else about her that was important to share with the class, as the guy next to Ulva spoke up.

"Mom, aren't those the colors of the Bei-fong family?" He asked in a matured voice.

Kisame didn't know anything about this Bei-Fong family, but if they had their own colors then they must've been important. Kisame looked to Juya, who was apparently the guys mother, and saw that she seemed to recognize the colors as well.

"They sure are. But last I heard the Bei-Fongs were being held as V.I.P.s, and were under tight security. If you are a Bei-Fong, then how did you escape?"

Now all eyes were on the girl as she emptily stared into space with her pale green eyes. As he gazed at her Kisame was now able to see the, made to fit her, earth bender cloths that had the classic color scheme that Kisame attributed to being an earth bender.

"Yea, I'm the sole heir to the Bei-Fong family. My name is Toph, Toph Bei-Fong and I didn't actually escape. I ran away," she stated.

Now that raised some red flags, and posed several questions. With Juya being the head of the tent, and the lady in charge she spoke up first.

"Wait, excuse me? You said you ran away? But why?" She asked.

That was the question that was on everybody's mind, but nobody expected the answer that she gave.

"Because I found out that my family helped the Fire Nation takeover Ba-Sing-Se," She sadly said.

Juya was quick with a question," How do you know your family did such things?"

Toph took a small calming breath before she went on to explain what she overheard.

"Two nights ago, when I was sneaking back into the house I overheard my parents talking with each other in the dining room. At the time of night it was they were usually asleep, so I was curious as to why they were still up. So I crept up and listened in…"

* * *

_Flashback_

_Toph crept silently with her bare feet making only the slightest of padding noises on the wooden floor. She stuck to the wall and leaned her head in a little to hear just what her parents were whispering about._

"_What if she finds out Lao? What if the others find out that we helped them?" Toph's mother asked in a frantic tone._

"_They won't connect it back to us if they tried. I made sure to give all of the information anonymously. We did what we had to do to make sure our baby actually grew up with a mother and a father you know that. She won't find because we aren't gonna tell her a word of it. You remember how she didn't say a word for the next two weeks after she came in from being at the public whipping of King Bumi. We both know that, even if she is blind, she could still 'see'. I don't know how much she saw, but it changed her. From then on I noticed the odd flashes of anger, the tightening of her jaw, or the sudden silence when the topic of the Fire Nation was brought up. If she found out what we did I doubt that she would look at us the same way she does now," Lao said gravely as he sighed at the end._

_Toph's heart stopped beating. What had her parents done? What are they not telling her? She remembers the "event" that her father was refrencing. Her parents didn't know it, but she had 'seen' the whole thing, and it changed her. It shed a whole new light on the situation she took lightly, and it changed the way she looked at it. She really didn't believe all the nasty rumors of what the Fire Nation did. She needed to experience something to believe it was real. That idea came with being blind, as she was. What she experienced on that day put the Fire Nation in the worst light possible. On that day she made a goal, no, a promise to herself. She promised that she would become the greatest earth bender on the face of the planet. After that, she would be one of the people to take back Ba-Sing-Se_

* * *

_(Flashback within a Flashback)_

_It was a rowdy day, and Toph wanted to know why. She heard the whispers of someone named Bumi, and his capture. She overheard from these two ladies that they were gonna be displaying him in the town center this afternoon. She was curious as to who this "Bumi" person was, and why he was so important, so she went._

_She never appreciated and regretted something so much in her short life._

_When she got to the town center, despite her "escorts" attempts to dissuade her, she saw the one they called Bumi chained up. They had him down to only his pants, as his arms were chained up to two tall metal posts. With his arms chained up he was literally forced into a standing position, but he was currently hanging. Toph could feel the slight heartbeat of the man, and could tell that he was unconscious. She felt that her "escort" was currently turned around, and she took the opportunity to slip into the crowd. She pushed her to the front and she immediately regretted it. _

_Toph wanted to throw up as the man's smell wafted its way into her nostrils. She gasped and covered her mouth, as tears found there place in the corners of her eyes._ _She heard similar gasps to her left and right. How could someone do that to anybody? She felt footsteps make their way up and behind the chained man, and she could make out that it was a Fire Nation soldier and he had some sort of handle in his hand. The crowd began to get a little rowdy at the sight of a Fire Nation soldier on the platform with the man, who she still didn't know why was so important, and some soldiers set themselves in front of the crowd as a barrier._

"_I'm glad you could all make it. I wouldn't want you all to miss this," Toph heard the man on the platform say over the crowd. Toph could feel that this man wasn't the nicest of individuals, and he had some sort of sick pleasure at seeing the man chained up._

"_Here we have the famed King Bumi. The man who is rumored to be the greatest earth bender alive! The man who had the audacity to defy the Fire Lord. The man who was the last ray of hope for all of you!" The man yelled out to the crowd._

_Toph was shocked. She had heard stories of King Bumi here and there, and they all painted him as this strong individual who had the spirit and strength of ten men despite his age. She had heard of him single handedly defending the city of Omashu with only the men present in the city from the Fire Nation for several months. Then one day the people heard explosions and felt earthquakes from King Bumi's palace, and once they got they they saw the infamous Blue Spirit with a Dao to his throat. He then ordered the people to surrender or King Bumi would die. The men surrendered and the Fire Nation occupied the city while taking King Bumi as a prisoner._

"_That's not true," a random voice yelled out from the crowd," the rebels will beat you guys, and take back Ba-Sing-Se!"_

_That brought a round of cheers from the crowd, and Toph felt the guards tense up at the sudden reverberations._

"_Yeah, Ba-Sing-Se will never succumb to the rule of the Fire Nation!"_

"_You monsters will never completely destroy our free will!"_

_The man scoffed at the outburst, "Those "rebels" are nothing but rabid dogs that deserve to be put down with extreme prejudice. They are nothing but riff raff! Don't you fools get it?! After the Fire Nation took over Ba-Sing-Se you lost all free will. You all will be doing the bidding of the Fire Lord sooner or later, and it would be within your best interests to fold now. If you don't well, we have methods for those of you who want to resist further," Toph felt the man walk over to Bumi and grip his hair, pulling his head for all to see," And here we have our first test subject of these methods!"_

_In the next moment Toph could feel what the handle in his hand was for. She felt him flex the muscles in his hand, and the next moment Toph could feel the slight heat emanating from the handle. She gasped and held her breath. They couldn't possibly be meaning to use that on…_

_The first cracking of the whip confirmed her thoughts. The crowd began to get angry at what he implied to do and the guards moved in to contain them. They could do nothing, but watch as the fire whip was put to use._

_**WHAPSHH WHAPSHH WHAPSHH**_

_Over and over the whip sounded, and Toph could feel the pain it caused the Bumi. She felt Bumi's heart thump erratically and from that she could tell the amount of pain he was going through. She didn't hear any sounds coming from the man to show that he was in any pain at all. Apparently the lack of screaming out in pain irritated the fire bender with the whip because Toph heard his breathing become even heavier before he momentarily stopped the flogging._

"_Ugh, you shitty earth benders are always a tough nut to crack, but you aren't the first earth bender who showed a high pain tolerance," Toph felt the reverberations through the ground and knew that the fire bender ignited a wall of flames around Bumi. The intensity made Toph wince, but still Bumi held a composure of stone. Suddenly Toph felt the same reverberations come through the chains that held Bumi in place before she heard them ignite. _

"_HAHAHAH," the man laughed in a smug tone," Now, how does that feel? None too good I take it?" The man laughed to himself a bit more before Toph felt the man create two whips of fire from his hands," Now, where were we?" _

_In the next moment the flogging began anew on a whole new level. Toph felt tears running from her eyes as the horrific continued on with no signs of stopping. An absolutely rotten smell made its way through Toph's nose, and she go choked up. It was the smell of burning flesh._

"_HAHAHAHA, the infamous King Bumi. What a joke. Look at you being beaten like a dog who disobeyed is master, and guess what? I'm the master!" The man fell off into another episode of crazy laughter before he continued his torture. The whipping continued on until Toph couldn't stand it anymore. She had to do something to stop this. She wouldn't stand here being powerless. If she let this contine on any longer she wouldn't be able to live with herself. She had power, and she was gonna use it. _

_Slowly she felt the earth shift beneath her as she commanded it with absolute authority like the badger moles that had taught her. Luckily the platform where the whipping was going on was stone, and that made it that much more easy for her. She reasoned that the platform was made from stone because they wanted to make it seem like Bumi was completely beaten to the point that him earth bending wasn't gonna be a problem for anyone. Plus, she heard that once the Fire Nation occupied Ba-Sing-Se they captured each and every earth bender in the city._

_She quickly got back to work and she breathed in deep before letting it out, in an effort to focus more. She had to make it as subtle as possible, as she didn't want to be caught. She lightly tapped her foot against the ground and felt the minerals within the rock right below where the man stood. She turned her foot sideways and flicked her wrist to the side. These motions caused the man to completely lose his footing and trip comically onto his back. Toph quickly capitalized on his stunned and vulnerable position on his back. Again she tapped her foot onto the ground, clenched her fists to her sides and flicked her wrists backwards. These motion threw the man off of the platform where he hit, out of all things, a rock on his way down which knocked him unconscious._

_Toph felt the man go unconscious, breathed out slowly, and let herself relax. She let a satisfied smile come onto her face, as the crowd erupted in laughter. To anyone who was looking on, it just looked like the man tripped and fell off of the platform. It just seemed like a mistake on the man's part and no one was the wiser. With the man unconscious the soldiers had to collect Bumi's burnt, but still alive, body and the man's and leave the area less they be anymore embarrassed. _

_As they collected Bumi's limp body she felt a miniscule tremor make its way through her body and she gasped sharply. There was only one place for that tremor to come from, as she knew it was meant for another earth bender to receive. She didn't know what it meant, but she felt as if it was a thank you. A smile found its way onto Toph's lips, and she sent a "you're welcome" tremor back. Toph ducked her head and maneuvered herself through the still laughing crowd towards her escort/bodyguard._

_She quickly put up her sweet and innocent bling girl front, and her escort was quick to find her and believe that she got swept away in the crowd and couldn't get out.. She idly thought that this act was either really good, or her bodyguard was really gullible. Either way they were quick on their way back to the Bei-Fong mansion._

_A new found inner passion raged inside of her, as she recalled that man's words. Losing her free will to anybody was not something she liked. She could hardly tolerate her parent's doing it because they thought she was helpless. She was hardly helpless, and it was time to prove it. Slowly plans for the future began to formulate in her mind, and in there a goal, a promise, was made. She would become the strongest earth bender the world had ever seen, and she would be the one to liberate Ba-Sing-Se._

_(End of the flashback within the flashback)_

* * *

_After that day Toph began to work herself ragged each night in her hidden training area perfecting her earth bending to the point that she would be utterly unstoppable. She would be a force of nature, and then she would break out and away from the image of this little blind girl who always needed protecting. She would show the world the real Toph Bei-Fong._

_Her thoughts on The Fire Nation being evil just solidified as they continued to do public displays like that. They cracked down on the people who publically spoke out against the Fire Lord's rule, and after the first few people began to disappear the people rioted._

_That was the last straw for her._

_On that day a hundred civilians were killed in the Fire Nation effort to put down the riot. To further the emphasis they hung the dead bodies in the town center to dissuade any further rebellions or riots. After that Toph stopped going outside, and she didn't know if the bodies were taken down or not. The next day it was decreed by the Fire Lord that an outrageous tax was to be set on the people of Ba-Sing-Se. They were never told why, but the tax hit hard and now Ba-Sing-Se was a shadow of what is used to be. Toph didn't even want to imagine how some of the poorer people were affected by it. These actions just set the Fire Nation in an even worse light, and now Toph had experienced their cruelty first hand on the powerless._

_Her thoughts were interrupted by her mother, as she began to cry._

"_She's gonna hate us Lao! Our baby girl won't be able to even look at us. She's gonna hate us, and this is all your fault!" She raged towards her father, "She's gonna hate her mother and it's all your fault!" _

_Toph heard her mother break down into tears and sobs, and then she felt her father wrap his arms around her in an attempt to comfort her._

"_I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. It was a one-time thing. You know we had to give the Fire Nation that information. We had no other choice," Toph heard her father say._

"_But they were able to take over Ba-sing-Se with that information! Do you not understand the scope of that? We helped them takeover our home!"_

_Toph slowly backed away from where her parents were slowly with wide eyes. Her parents helped The Fire Nation? They helped those monsters takeover the city. They helped the same Fire Nation that Toph hated with her very being. The same Fire Nation that she now knew of as cruel, merciless, and cold blooded monsters! It was all too much, and Toph wasn't in the right mind to care about being stealthy anymore. She stumbled backwards and knocked over a stray vase which shattered as it hit the ground._

_Toph froze for a second as her parents went silent._

"_Who is out there?" Toph heard her dad ask._

_Toph didn't even blink, as she heard her parents get up from their spots. She couldn't move, as what she had just learned rocked her to the core. Her parents, the people that gave birth to her, the people that cared for her, the only two people she thought she could trust and count on in her life, helped the Fire Nation. And for what reason?! No, this couldn't be happening right now. _

"_Toph, honey, is that you? Come in here we need to talk about what you just heard," she heard her mom say._

_What? Talk about it?! What was there to talk about?! Her parents were liars, backstabbers, and traitors to their own country. To their own name! She had to get out of there. This house suddenly became cramped and hollow. All the warmth that was once there wasn't there anymore. _

_All that was there was betrayal._

_She didn't think about it for a second more. She took off out the door as her parents called out to her in an effort to bring her back, but she didn't want to hear any of it. She ran out of the backdoor with hazy eyes that were filled with unshed tears. She stopped at a cherry tree that was just beginning to bloom, and bent the ground beneath it to reveal a secret tunnel that she had created long ago. She took one last look over her shoulder at the house that she had lived in her entire life before going down into the tunnel, closing the entrance, and not looking back. Guess her plans would have to move up in the schedule, as she sensed her way through the pitch black. It was time to begin her plan to liberate Ba-Sing-Se._

_It was time to find the rebels._

_(Flashback end)_

* * *

"…and from there I spent almost two days feeling for any other earth benders until I found that tunnel and Hippo over there found me." She finished.

Pure silence permeated the room as Toph finished her retelling of the very emotional events that had transpired for her in the past three days while simultaneously giving the rebel leader an update of how Ba-Sing-Se was. Different thoughts were flowing through people's heads as they digested all of what Toph had said. Kisame was, to describe it in one word, angry. He was angry at the blatant betrayal that Toph's parents performed against their own people. He was angry at how the Fire Nation wanted to take people's free will away from them. He was angry at how they treated the people of the Earth Kingdom, and he wouldn't stand for it. Apparently Juya was done with her thinking, as she began to speak.

"How were you able to find us Toph?" She asked.

"When I was younger, one day I snuck outside at night to just enjoy the feeling of the night air. Not too many people know, but I love nature and all that comes with it, so that's why I snuck out. While I was out there I accidentally earth bent the ground beneath me. With my earth bending being new to me, and me not having any control over it, I bent deep enough to where I landed in a giant tunnel of some sort. I remember being absolutely terrified, and curling up into a ball against the wall. There I began to cry because no one knew where I was and I thought I was trapped there.

While I was crying I felt something nudge up against me. It was some big sort of furry thing, and it licked my face. From there I cheered up, and, to this day I don't really know how, I began to learn earth bending from the original earth benders themselves, the badger moles. They taught me their own style, and how to 'see'. I use the reverberation that come off of a person, those waves then make their way through the ground to my feet at the speed of sound. From those waves I'm able to make out shapes, predict what a person is gonna do before they do it, and a bunch of other neat tricks," She said smugly.

He thought that story was a little far-fetched, as badger moles were notorious for not wanting to be in contact with any human whatsoever. The last recorded badger mole sighting was during the time of Avatar Roku. And after Roku died, all of the badger moles seemed to go underground and away from human contact or influence.

Kisame heard choking noises come from three of the earth benders in the room, and Juya gasped in shock. What was the big deal?

"The Boulder believes that no human has been in contact with a badger mole for a few hundred years. The Boulder wants to know, what makes this little girl so special?" The Boulder asks in his typical third person fashion.

"To not only meet a badger mole, but to learn earth bending from it?" Juya scoffed and leaned back in her chair," you do not know how lucky you are Toph. You will have a leg up against any one you come in contact with since no one has ever seen Badger Mole style earth bending before. Even my son, Jadan, would have some trouble with that, and he's the strongest earth bender we have."

Whoa, wait what?

"Whoa, wait what?" Ulva spoke up.

Kisame was in the same boat as her. There was no way that this was Jadan. Well, now that he thought about he did look familiar. Was this the guy that Pakku was talking about? The one that would join them. This guy was notorious and Kisame could respect a man of action. Kisame was getting antsy at the thought of possibly sparring with a guy like him.

Jadan spoke up for the first time," What?" He looked at Ulva with a shit-eating grin on his face,"What's the problem?"

Ulva just gaped at him, as if he was stupid or something.

"What do you mean what's the problem?! You're…" She began.

"Jadan the Earth Shaker! The bane of The Fire Nation. You're the face of the rebel army man!" Toph finished with a girly squeal that made everyone look at her. She apparently felt the stares and commented," What? A girl can't have her moment when she is meeting her idol. He's supposed to be the strongest free earth bender in the world right now, and is rumored to have been the only one to fight the Blue Spirit to a standstill."

That part Kisame didn't know. Apparently, it was supposed to be a secret because Jadan spoke up.

"How do you know that? No one else knows that except for me and my mom," He looked around," and I guess they do to, but how do you know?"

Suddenly Toph looked sheepish," Oh well I heard about that event one day from a drunken soldier who was talking just a little bit too loud. He was saying about how he heard from a buddy from the capital that the Blue Spirit came back empty handed and without your head. He said that the Blue Spirit looked terrible. He said his mask was cracked, one of his swords were broken, he was favoring one arm, and was walking with a limp. The guy said he looked like he got in a fight with a rock and lost. I guess he wasn't too far off with the comparison," She laughed awkwardly at the end.

Jadan chuckled a bit at the funny comparison at the end before Kisame saw him gain a distant look in his eye," I wouldn't say he got away empty handed. He killed my entire squad single handedly. It was supposed to be simple night raid for resources before it all went to shit, and I ended up fighting for my life. The Blue Spirit really was an absolute monster, and during the fight I could understand how people thought of him as a spirit incarnate. But now I know that he can bleed just like the rest of us can. You say he was able to still walk. Well that's why I count my survival as dumb luck. Ya see the only reason I was able to survive that night is because of the second squad that was sent in after mine was to help with the carrying the goods," Here he paused and threw a thumb in The Boulders and Hippo's direction," These two block heads saved my life that night. They actually left earlier than when they were supposed to because they weren't sure what time to leave. Long story short, with the injuries I dealt to him and these two being fresh, we forced The Blue Spirit to retreat. I don't remember much after that, but mom here says I almost died of blood loss from this."

He shifted his tunic up to show his abdomen, Kisame noted the blushes on Ulva and Toph's faces at his six pack, to show a wicked scar that went down the entire length of his torso, from left to right. He let his tunic drop, as everyone got their look at the scar.

"That was one of the few hits he got on me when I had my guard down. The reason I count our fight as a win for him and a loss for me because I fucking broke his ankle, the arm and sword that did that cut, and he was still able to walk away while I almost died," He finished with a frown on his face.

Kisame could understand where he was coming from, and he could guess that he wanted a rematch. A scar like that lasts a lifetime, and he has to be reminded of it every single day. That stings something fierce. Not physically, but it hurts one's pride as a warrior. It makes you doubt your strength with the only way to fix it is by proving your better than the one who gave you that scar. He has one across his back. Fighting a guy who was a master at the art of a boomerang was a nightmare.

"But we're all glad that you made it out alive Jadan," Juya spoke up after Jadan finished his trip down memory lane. He flashed her a small smile of appreciation before he quieted down and settled back into his position of leaning against the wall.

Juya sighed and turned back to Toph,"Well young lady I wish I could finalize the details and ask if this was your final decision, but I could see that you're adamant about joining the rebellion. I gues I have no other choice, but to welcome you," she informed her with a small smile on her face as Toph's lit up in excitement, "The Boulder and Hippo will show you to the quarters where you will find a place to sleep, some food, and a new set of clothes." As Juya finished Hippo came and picked the girl up, setting her on his shoulders.

"Haha, Hippo will show Toph Hippo is sure Toph will love it. It have nice beds and warm food. Everyone here treat you like family. Hippo would like it if Toph become his family too, haha," The Hippo said with a wide smile on his face showing his four teeth.

"The Boulder feels that he would want The Toph on his side. The Boulder feels like she is strong one, am I right Hippo?" You all know who said that.

"Haha, yeah! Hippo feels that little girl is very strong strong!"

"Haha, you got that right buddy! The Toph feels like she is gonna like it here!"

At that the group laughed as they made their way out of and away from the tent to show Toph around. The trio left a chuckling group behind, as their antics were comical.

"Ah, now that that's out of the way," Juya turned to Kisame," Pakku told me that you have some important information for me. I need to see it to determine if I'm gonna help you out or not."

Kisame was confused. Arnook told him that she would help them, no strings attached. He grew a frown on his face, as he thought about of this.

Juya seemed to notice his frown as she spoke up.

"I know Arnook said that I'd help you just like that, but you're asking a lot. I have a rebel army to tun, and we barely have enough for ourselves. If this information is as crucial, as Arnook alluded it to be then you have nothing to worry about," She explained.

Kisame could accept this, as it was fair. He understood their lack of provisions and ability to help. Luckily the information, and all of the important stuff, were kept in Ulva's conveniently made waterproof satchel.

Kisame knew it was a good idea for her to get the waterproof one.

Kisame got the folder from Ulva and handed it to Juya. Kisame saw her grab the folder and open it, exposing its contents. Kisame didn't want to pry in the folder, as she was looking through it with an intense focus. After a few minutes of silence, and a few exchanged looks to Ulva, Kisame spoke up for the both of them.

"So, will you help us?" Kisame asked after sending Ulva a dirty look for shoving him forward towards her desk.

Juya closed the folder and rubbed the bridge of her nose while mumbling to herself.

"...old for this shit," Kisame heard.

Juya sighed before looking up to all three of them.

"I don't think I have much of a choice here. It would seem as if the world is at stake, and you guys are gonna need all the help you can get." She said as she looked into each of their eyes.

Well that was disconcerting.

* * *

Slowly he crouched down to look at the ground. He ran his gloved fingers across the small foot prints. His prey didn't know it, but she was leading them right to one of the rebel's bases. The Fire Lord knew this would be the first and only place she could go, and called for him to hunt her down and find the rebel base. He wouldn't fail again. The masked man got up from his crouch and looked around the tunnel. It was huge, and looked to be some sort of escape tunnel. He held up a fist to halt the large battalion of Fire Nation troops the Fire Lord sent with him. He dropped his fist as a rebel was thrown at his feet covered in bruises and burns. The soldier was clearly in pain. Good, this made it that much easier.

The masked man grabbed the rebel by his throat, and lifted him up into the air with seeming ease. The soldier kicked and scratched at the hand that held his throat in a vice, but it did little to deter the man. The soldier's eyes widened and he got even more choked up at just who was choking him. It was the man who was deemed completely untouchable. This masked man had single handedly killed hundreds of earth bender, and was reported to be the one to capture the legendary King Bumi. If he was here then everybody above ground was in danger. The man's struggles increased ten-fold before he had to stop as the hand gripping his throat tightened.

He now shook in fear, as he was lowered face to mask towards his captor. He gazed into the soulless black eyes of the mask that was said to be the last the thing people saw. That devil of a mask that sent shivers down his spine. He knew he was about to die, but knew he had to do something to let anyone know just who he was down here with. Luckily the masked man dropped him, and the soldier quickly dug his fingers into the stone floor sending secret vibrations up through the ground. Hopefully someone could catch them and warn everyone. A thunderous kick to the face took him out of his hopeful thoughts and back into reality. He only grunted in pain, as he wasn't about to show this monster just how much that hurt.

"You will tell me everything you know, or..," he heard the masked man say in a muffled voice.

Suddenly the masked man grabbed the soldier's shoulder, and the world erupted in lightning and blue light. It seemed like an eternity, but it was only five seconds. In the end the masked man let go, and the rebel was left a gasping smoking heap. The soldier quickly sent last minute vibrations before he was lifted back up again to his knees.

"So will you cooperate, or will you need more convincing?" the masked man asked.

All he got was a bloody wad of spit to the mask.

"No it is then."

The electrocution began anew, and this time the soldier couldn't keep his screams in. He yelled in agony at the mind numbing pain his entire body was feeling. He only knew pain, and the color blue for a few second before it abruptly stopped once again. This time the soldier could feel his consciousness fading, and could smelt the rank odor of his own burning flesh. It was all too much, and the soldier began to pass out.

"Oh no, you're not going to sleep until you tell what I want to know."

In the next moment the entire tunnel was filled with the color blue, and the screams of the captured soldier. The Fire Nations backs were turned away from the electrocution, as they had grown used to it already. They knew that some things were necessary, and these were one of them. They all were used to it. That's why they were a special battalion. They were the ones who did the black ops, dirty shit like this. They're the ones who forsook their identities to gain the strength needed to put down the rebel dogs like the animals they were. They were the ones who took the place of the boogeyman in the scary stories, with their commander being the boogeyman himself.

Around the world he was known and feared. He was the untouchable phantom. The unescapable hunter. The one who went bump in the night. It didn't matter that he was young, because that just made him that much scarier. They've seen his face, and what he went through to get where he was. That's why they respected him to the upmost, and he reciprocated the feelings. They didn't have an official name for their battalion, but their commander had a name all to himself.

They called him The Blue Spirit.

* * *

"So you say this…shark… man impeded you, and was the reason the Northern Water Tribe isn't ours?"

"Yes, father. He showed a surprising amount of strength, and we all weren't ready for it."

"Hmm, I want a bounty put on this fish man's head. I want him to know what happens when you agitate the Fire Lord."

"Yes, father. Now, if you would excuse me I am going to find my sister."

"She is currently out visiting her little friend in Omashu, and your brother is out hunting."

He clenched his jaw," I understand. What would you want put on the bounty sheet father?"

"Hmm, I want the hunters to think he is going to be worth it, so I want him to have a nickname. Call him…The Great White of the North. Yes, that'll do just fine. That'll be sure to get a lot of attention from those bounty hunters."

"Father, I suggest sending the combustion bender to test him. I don't believe that such riff raff should get such a huge bounty on his head if he cannot survive him."

"Oh, and do you know where he is?"

"I know exactly where he is father."

"Hmm, I see. It's a win win even if he fails. Good idea my son, at least you don't need to be taught a lesson in order for you to become productive. You may send the assassin."

He clenches his fists behind his back, "Yes father."

"Oh Masaru, I have almost forgot. I have a special assignment for you."

Masaru just raised an eyebrow, as his father rarely gave him any down time.

"What is it father?"

"We've been having some problems with a small fleet of southern water tribesmen. They have been raiding our ships and ports, leaving them in ruin. I want you to take care them. Permanently."

"It will be done father."

"You are dismissed then."

* * *

"We almost have them all together, now."

"Yes, I know."

"Do you believe that they will be enough for what's to come?"

"As they are? No. They are all gonna need a lot of work if they even want a hope of surviving."

"When are you going to address the Blue Spirit and his possession of that human?"

"In due time, but I believe I won't have to. That human's spirit is strong, and I believe the Blue Spirit bit off more than he can chew this time."

"Hn, I still can't believe you cheated with your champion."

"You're just mad that you didn't think of it. Plus, he beat yours, so that probably makes you extra mad doesn't it?"

"Oh shut up fish head before I roast you alive!"

"Oh I'd like to see you try fire crotch. I'll teach you why water extinguishes fire by using you as an example!"

As they descended into bickering the other two spoke silently to the new girl.

"These two always do this so don't worry about them."

"Yes, we will teach you all that you need to know about being the new Moon Spirit. You will need to learn fast young one. Our time is limited as it is."

"I thank you and I will try my best."

"Don't worry, I'm sure you'll take to this like a fish to water, hahahah."

Three smacks echoed through the space they were in, as they face-palmed at the bad joke.

* * *

So that was Ch.9, the longest chapter to date in this fic, and I hope you all like it. Kisame and Ulva met the Earth Kingdom rebels, and the guy that they're gonna have joining them. I'm not the best at descriptions here, but I hope I did a good enough job at describing the Oc's. I had a fun time writing for The Boulder and Hippo, and I hope I did their comical characters justice. Toph's back story is a little different since Ba-Sing-Se was taken over. Points to you if you understand the scenes at the end, and just who is talking in them. I wanted it to be a little mysterious.

If you're wondering where we are in the A:TLA universe, we're just starting on season 2, episode 201 I believe. Anyways, this Ch. Was mostly filler and set up for the next chapter, which I believe will be out late or mid-August since school is gonna start soon for me and I need to go school shopping and all that jazz. Anyways, read, review, favorite, and follow yo! All the support means so much for me, and I can't express enough gratitude for you guys that follow this fic. Now, I have a new side project that I posted the first chapter for. The updates for that will be random and sporadic, as G.W.O.T.N. is my main focus.

Beta-reader- Yeah, I got an idea on what to do for the other champions, but I can't say cuz that'll be spoilers.

Son of Thanatos 64- Thanks for the positive feedback man. I hope that you're enjoying the story so far, and you got your wish for another chapter right here. I hope you enjoy this chapter, and the flashbacks aren't too confusing.

The Baz-Yeah, I know right. It confuses me too. I guess it might be because he's just not Naruto or Sasuke or something. Anyways, Combustion man will be given his due, but you'll be surprised about how I take it.

Septimus the infernal basilisk- Yup, samehada is here and it'll be a big game changer in the grand scheme of things. I call hacks! Oh, and I think you're gonna have to keep hanging there because…well you know why.

This is Coolness121 signing off, thank you and Good whatever time it is when you are reading this! (Drops mic)


	10. Chapter 10: What's With The Masks?

Finally, wow. This took a lot longer than I thought. I'm actually sorry. So, apologies yo. This is short because I want to put the rest in one huge chapter, and I just wanted to get this one out there so people know that this isn't dead. It was just put on the back burner cuz I really wasn't liking how some things were turning out as I wrote them. So, my bad.

The Blue Tiger- Here you go, and that was my exact reasoning for writing this. It's a shame that a lot of the more minor characters from Naruto aren't written about as the main character of a fic. Sometimes reading Naruto, no matter the gender mind you, can get a bit repetitive.

Grocamol- Well, this is an Au universe, as you can see, so it's expanded upon. The original A:TLA only followed Aang and who the Gaang met. This fic follows Kisame, and the people he meets. Since they won't follow the same path, they won't meet the same people. Granted, there will be people both groups meet, Toph being one, there are some they won't. I made these OCs to make Kisame's path more original and unique to fit theuniverse this is in.

Without further ado, here you all go.

* * *

Her words rattled every occupant's composure. This was an entirely different scale than what they were used to. This sounded like a job for the avatar or something.

"Y-you can't be serious can you?" Ulva asked shakily. She swiftly turned her head to Kisame and repeated herself," She can't be serious can she?" She choked out a laugh and turned back toward the sitting Juya," You can't be serious can you?"

Juya gave a shrug," I don't entirely know. I'm not 100 percent sure on this, as it is completely out of my plane of expertise," She said truthfully," From what I read this organization deals with a lot of the stuff people these days believe as fake, or a hoax." She explained.

This also caused confusion, and this time Kisame was the one to speak up," What do you mean by that exactly?" He asked cautiously. If his suspicions were correct…

"I mean," She began," that these people deal with the spiritual side of things. The side mortals are not meant to tamper with. These people are meddling with the supernatural forces on the other side of the veil, so to speak. They are essentially doing what the avatar does, but in a more perverted manner."

Again, this bomb was unexpected and sent waves of shock through all of them. Almost as if they were possessed to do so, Kisame and Jadan locked eyes for a moment before turning them back to Juya. From that one look they realized that whatever dream, vision, hallucination, whatever, was real, and it meant something really real was happening. Kisame threw a glance out of the corner of his eye to the already glancing Jadan that told him that they needed to speak after everything was said and done.

Their mini conversation that they had with just their eyes was interrupted, as they both swiveled their vision back to Juya as she began to talk some more.

"I do not know why Arnook sent you two here," she said pointing two fingers at Ulva and Kisame," and why he decided to dump all of this onto me so suddenly, but I have no choice to help you guys out now." Juya saw the two's shoulders sag slightly in relief, but didn't speak on it. She cleared her throat and continued," From what I know of this Black Lotus organization, and I repeat that it isn't enough for you to actually consider my words, but whatever they are scheming up with this," She said with a wave of her hand toward the folder," is big. We're looking at an organization with the resources, the ambition, to do something we have yet to witness," Suddenly her tone turned grave," And if they somehow get wind of your activities in trying to expose them to the only power that can currently stop them, I hope you are prepared for the storm that will be headed your way."

At her words a jolt of…something traveled down his spine. It wasn't fear. No, he wasn't afraid of what this organization could throw at him. He had bled and sweat for hours training, creating, perfecting, and cultivating his strength. He wasn't being cocky, but he knew he was on a whole different level than most people. There weren't many that could fight him on even grounds, or even defeat him. The ones that could were of a whole different breed of animal. No, what traveled down his spinal cord was excitement.

"I have already pre-acquired you guys a means of travel and supplies that should last you a few months. If you starve after that it is not on me," She intoned," Also, how you're going to get through these chaos filled lands shall be your problem too, and I suggest you find yourselves something to cover your appearances," She gestured towards Kisame," He doesn't really fit the bill of normality."

They nodded and said their thanks to Juya. Juya nodded back and looked out of the makeshift window her tent had. Night was beginning to fall, and the sun was going down. Anyone still alive that wasn't subjugated by the Fire Nation knew that night time was the worst time to travel. That was when the 'boogeyman' came out. She honestly didn't believe it, but she understood the dangers of travelling at night time.

She turned back to the trio," I cannot in good conscience let you travel during sun down, so you will be staying here for the night and travel once daylight breaks," She looked at her son and then back to the two," Jadan here will be showing you where you will be staying for the night."

With that she nodded and bid them a good night. All of the occupants that did not belong there began to move out of the tent. Ulva and Kisame waited until Jadan was in front of them and followed after his broad frame. The trio stepped out of the tent, and unlike when they were first there, night had fallen and lanterns littered the area providing light for the people who needed it. As they walked, Kisame noticed the increased number of patrolmen and guards and reasoned that they were there just in case of a surprise night attack. They walked in silence, following Jadan's lead, not out of awkwardness or being uncomfortable, but more out of them each thinking on the words that were just spoken to them. Eventually the trio made it to the tents that were placed in the back, away from the civilianized area. It was here Jadan finally stopped and spoke up.

"This is it," He finally said," This is where we all sleep. Well, when we can sleep anyways," at their curious looks he just shrugged," We don't really get any down time as an attack can happen any day at any time. We always have to be on our toes," he explained.

"Isn't that a bit paranoid though?" Ulva asked aloud.

Both she and Kisame were taken aback by the look that was shot at her. Jadan's jade green eyes were filled with a silent fire at Ulva's seemingly innocent statement.

"No, it isn't "paranoid". It's smart," He fired at her and looked ready to continue, but caught himself. He sighed in a frustrated manner and ran a hand through his dark hair," Look, I don't want to get into that right now. I have enough on my plate as it is, and now I have to go on this wild goose chase looking for the leader of an organization no one is even sure actually exists in order to tell him about another organization that probably doesn't exist as well," He said in an irritated tone.

With his piece said, he curtly turned around and began to walk away. To their surprise he stopped, sighed, and turned around to say something else. "I get up at around five o'clock every day. If you want to learn more about what's been going on, and what I've had to do to keep this resistance floating, then come talk to me then. I just need some sleep," he said. Without waiting for an answer or any kind of response from the duo, he turned back around and continued his trek into the night until Kisame and Ulva couldn't see him anymore.

Kisame was the first to turn into the tent and look at the type of rooming they would have. It was fairly spartan, which was understandable in his eyes. Only an oil flame lamp that sat on a pedestal of earth. Most likely erected by one of the earth benders. There was a problem, though, with the room.

There was only one bed.

Kisame looked at Ulva with unnoticeably darker cheeks, and she looked back at him with slightly darker cheeks.

"So, uh…" Kisame began, "I can sleep on the flo-"

"Hell no," Ulva interjected, cutting him off. She started moving away from Kisame and towards the bed. "We both need some sleep, and I don't think you will get any at all sleeping on this floor. No, we will share the…bed. It looks big enough to support us both," she said, trying hard not let her voice crack.

Kisame's beady eyes were wide, while he could see the logic in it, they hadn't slept in the same bed since they were kids. Back then he didn't really notice just how…curvy she was.

No, Kisame shook his head and killed the heat he felt in his cheeks, they were just sleeping together in the same bed. That was it. Just two friends who were about to travel the world, and needed some sleep. It was the smart decision and made sen…

"What are you doing," he asked as his cheeks turned a dark blue.

Ulva stopped what she was doing, hands at the hem of her shirt ready to pull it over her head and off. She looked at Kisame inquisitively, "What? You know I can't sleep with a shirt on. I got it from you after all those time you did it, I decided to try it, and I guess it kind of stuck to me now."

With her piece said she continued undressing, and Kisame swiftly turned around not wanting to be on the receiving end of any of her anger this late.

He'd rather go to sleep under his own power and not her fist, thank you very much. With his back turned, he heard two different pieces of clothing hit the ground, and his heart beat quickened. He could only imagine…

He took a deep breath in, and slowly let it out. He would not be controlled by his hormones. She was his friend, his best friend. He repeated that to himself several more times before he felt what he was feeling ebb away back down. He side walked his way over to his side of the bed, back turned to Ulva that entire time and purposely ignoring her light chuckles and the sounds of her clothes being removed.

He grasped the handle of his whatever it was, and felt it wriggle in his hand. He placed it across his lap and examined it a little closer. Now was probably the only time he would get to anyways.

He stared at it, and saw the bandages were still in pristine condition. Pale white and perfectly wrapped around it. The handle was tan, not that long, and with a skull at the end. It probably was a weapon of some sort, but what? He had never even seen something this huge besides a hammer. Was it a hammer possibly?

…w..rd…

Kisame's head snapped up, and he looked around. He glanced over his shoulder at Ulva, silently glad that she was done changing and was climbing into the bed.

"Did you say something?" He asked her. She was the only person in there with him of course, and he wasn't crazy…

Probably…

"Huh?" Ulva registered the question before shaking her head negative. "Nope. I didn't say anything. Why? Did you hear something?"

Kisame debated quickly on whether to tell her or not, but then he heard it again.

**S..o**r…**d.**

"There it is again," he said. He stopped and looked down at the bundle across his lap. He slowly reached out, and put his hand on the surface of it. He closed his eyes, and then he heard it.

**I AM SAMEHADA," **Kisame heard a voice that sounded like it was underwater say in his head. **"****I AM YOUR INSTRUMENT TO BRING DESTRUCTION AND SPILL BLOOD. FOR NOW AND FOREVER."**

Before he could ask the weapon, no, Samehada to elaborate, his hand, that somehow got to the handle during that sequence, was pierced by several sharp spikes. He grunted in pain and surprise, but didn't pull his hand away as he reasoned this must have been the bonding process it talked about.

His pained tone drew Ulva's attention and she hovered closely behind him.

"Whoa. Kisame, what are you doing with that?" she asked him wearily. Seeing the blood leaking from the holes in his hand. She didn't panic though, as she knew Kisame would react in a more severe way if he was in danger.

Kisame grunted as the spikes receded from his hand. He raised his hand up to judge how bad the wounds were, but was surprised to see that there were no wounds. He wiped away some of the blood, and saw that his hand was hole-free. His healing factor was never this fast with wounds before.

"Kisame," he heard. Snapped out of his thoughts, he looked over his shoulder to see a concerned Ulva.

He held up Samehada in one hand, and the both of them watched the white bandages slowly fall away from it. When the final wrappings fell to the floor, they both saw Samehada for all its scaled, ferocious glory. It wriggled in excitement, flared its scales, and licked its lips, revealing several rows of sharp teeth.

Just like a shark.

"Kisame,…what is it?"

"This is my new weapon. This is Samehada."

"…oh."

* * *

When his head hit his pillow, he dreamed of uncontrollable endless black fire, uncontrollable tidal waves of water, flaming tigers, and unimaginable beasts only told about in legend. The repeating theme in all of it was him. Sometimes he was watching, laughing, and enjoying himself. Other times he was in the heat of battle, bringing death and spilling crimson blood in gallons. He saw himself use Samehada, the way he supposed it was meant for. He learned that it shaved, not cut. He learned, but at the same time he always knew this.

Through these images, it began to change. He now saw himself, as he is now. Not the him with the cloak decorated with red clouds. He saw streams of jade green fire, red fire, blue fire, and black fire and water. Together, the two elements beckoned the apocalypse. He felt the earth shake and crumble, he felt like the world was ending! It was to be devoured in these flames aided by its nemesis in water. How? How was this possible? This shouldn't be happening!

These powers turned on him, and rushed him. He closed his eyes and covered his face as best he could waiting for the pain…

But he felt nothing.

He slowly opened his eyes to pure white, but there was a figure standing there in front of him with their back turned to him. From the hair and body type, he guessed she was female. She looked familiar, but he couldn't figure out who she was. He stepped towards her, and placed a hand on her shoulder to turn her around.

The woman slowly turned around, and Kisame dropped his had in shock at who it was.

She smiled sadly to him and said, "You're not supposed to be here. Not yet, at least. That cute friend of yours needs you right now Kisame," she put a hand on his cheek and he wished he could stay like this for the rest of his life. "Oh, I'm so proud of you, Kisame. I wish I could talk more, but you need to go. You are in danger right now. You need to wake up Kisame. Wake up. WAKE UP, KISAME!"

Kisame's eyes burst open, and they immediately focused on the face hovering above him.

"WAKE UP, KISAME! WE ARE UNDER ATTACK! WE NEED TO GO!" Ulva yelled in his face.

He put his hands on her arms, and pushed her off of him. His nose wrinkled as he smelled the irritating scent he was beginning to get all too familiar with.

Smoke and ash.

"What's going on, Ulva?" He asked while he hurriedly swung his feet out of the bed and clothed himself.

Ulva grimaced, "The Fire Nation is. I don't know how they found us, I heard the screams and saw the flares of fire go up. I think the resistance is holding strong Kisame, but we need to help while they evacuate the civilians."

Kisame finished strapping Samehada to his back, feeling it wriggle in excitement, and stepped beside her.

He cracked his knuckled and rolled his neck, "Well, let's go."

They stepped out of the tent, and just in the knick of time. The tent was devoured in red and orange flames, and they turned their heads to the source of the blast only to see him get smashed in the stomach with a pillar of earth that rose from the ground. The Fire Nation soldier doubled over before he was brutally upercutted by an earth spire, bending his neck back like a pez dispenser.

"Ha, take that ya bastard!" They heard.

Behind them was the blind girl, Toph. Her pupil-less gaze did nothing to take away from her satisfied smile. Instead of the dress she came in, she was now wearing the classic version of the Earth Kingdom uniform fit to her size (her usual outfit). She clenched her fist and stomped her left foot forward, and the ground opened up and swallowed the now dead Fire Nation soldier.

"You two!" she pointed to them. "Jadan sent me to get you two love-birds up. He wants you up in the front, yesterday! C'mon slow pokes. Keep up!" She challenged.

The trio ran, with Toph in the lead, seeing Earth Kingdom men and women helping families evacuate, they saw burning corpses and they heard the blasts of fire and felt the shaking of the earth.

Soon they made it to the Juya's tent. There were several guards out front that raised their fists, ready to defend their leader, until they saw who it was. Another flare of fire sprouted out into the sky as the trio entered Juya's tent, to see her quickly getting her things together.

She looked up when they entered, and cursed, "Shit, you guys are too late. Jadan already left to help fight, the stupid boy. I was telling him that you guys needed to leave. Now. You have a mission that you need to get started to end all of this," she hobbled forward, arms full of scrolls and folders and other stuff. "You," she nodded to Ulva, "Come here and help me get everything together. You two, go help out my stubborn son, please. Sometimes that kid acts too much like me, and not enough like his father."

She walked past them in a hurry and two guards acted as her defenders, one in front and one in the back, with their heads on the swivel and rocks circulating around them like sentries.

Kisame and Ulva looked at each other for a long moment. They nodded at one another, and Ulva broke eye contact first, and rushed out of the tent. Kisame followed her as she left before shaking his head, and placing a scowl on his face.

"C'mon Shark-man. We gotta go help out. I hope you can use that giant thing on your back," Toph quipped as they both exited the tent.

Instinct kicked in for Kisame, and he spat out a stream of water that extinguished the fireball that was coming for them. He waved a hand, and bended the excess water into a glob of water that he split into several bullets. He pushed his hand forward, and pelted the fire bender who attacked them.

The firebender was riddled with the steel like water bullets, but his armor held up against the assault. Kisame unstrapped Samehada from his back, and rushed the soldier. He swayed his head to the right, avoiding a stream of fire, and had to sway it the other way to avoid the follow-up blast of red hot fire.

The firebender shot both of his fists forward to make one big blast of fire, knowing there was no way for the blue-skinned man to avoid it.

Kisame saw the blast coming, but did not stop. He instead twirled, gaining momentum, and swung Samehada up into the blast if fire. Samehada destroyed the blast into embers, and came out unscathed to the shock of the Fire Nation soldier. He hastily swept out a line of fire at Kisame's feet.

Kisame predicted the move, and was already in the air. The fire nation soldier could nothing, but watch as Kisame fell down from the sky, Samehada cocked back, ready to pulverize him.

Kisame roared a battle cry, as he brought Samehada down onto the firenation soldier like a giant club. The giant sword, came down on the man's head, and it was like a hammer driving a nail into a board. The force of blow took the firebender off his feet violently and smashed his head into the earth below. The ground cratered and broke apart, as the firebenders head was forcefully embedded into the earth.

Kisame had no reprieve though, as his senses flared, and he ducked his head to avoid the flames. He rolled forward, ready to counter attack, but the earth beneath the feet of the soldier moved. From both sides of the soldier, giant slabs of rock rose, and then suddenly came together like clap.

Kisame heard a crunch from between the slabs, and they fell back to earth to reveal a dead, squished firebender. Kisame stood up, and turned away from the now dead man, and looked at Toph who he completely forgot about.

"No thanks needed, Shark-man. But you're welcome anyways," she said with a smirk.

He rolled his eyes before see a stream of fire cut across the night sky once more. He frowned, and turned to Toph to tell her what he intended to do.

"Just go. I can handle myself, if you haven't noticed. Pfft, and I thought I was the blind one here," she joked. She stomped twice, and pushed her hands down and then up, and turned his head to see two soldiers with their legs trapped in stone.

"That's two you owe me now, Shark-man. Don't make it three, yea?" she said cheekily.

Kisame swung his sword horizontally, catching both trapped men with it, destroying their bonds with ease, and smashing them into the wall. The wall cracked under the force, and the two men hollered in pain before they fell to the ground and didn't get back up.

Kisame smiled viciously, "I'll make sure not to. Make sure not to trip over your own feet then," he shot back.

"Blind jokes. Head them all. Just try not to die. I'm going to become the strongest earthbender in the world one day, and I want to fight you one of these days," She told him.

Kisame holstered Samehada to his back, "I'm not dying anytime soon, brat. You make it out of here, and I'll gladly fight you someday. Good luck, brat," he said before turning and running toward where he guessed the fighting was the thickest.

If he would've stayed just a moment longer he would've saw the smile that grew on his face.

Kisame ran for a bit and turned a corner. He skidded to a stop as he rounded a corner. A bruised and cut up Jadan skidded backwards to his feet, and Kisame quickly helped him up.

He looked up and was greeted by three firebenders, but these three were different. Instead of the heavy armor regular soldiers wore, these two wore light most likely leather armor. It was mainly black with crimson highlights and the Fire Nation symbol on their right shoulders in red as well. Their fists, forearms, and shin were covered in studs, most likely for when they got in close quarters. It also didn't help that they both had two swords sheathed on their backs. They also wore masks on their faces.

Oni masks.

One wore a purple and white mask with two horns jutting out of the forehead and its lips pulled back into a bloody snarl. The other had a red and white one with two giant fangs poking out of the top of the mouth, and a scowl on its face. And the one in the middle wore a blue and white one. This one's mask made him stop. He had seen that mask before.

Kisame felt something was off about these three, and it wasn't just their attire. He pulled Samehada off of his back and pointed it at them after Jadan was up on his feet.

"Who are you two? You don't look like the usual soldiers from the Fire Nation, so who the hell are you?" He asked harshly. He was getting dark vibes from these three.

Jadan growled, and stomped his feet hard, shaking the earth. The earth abided his command, and he suddenly had two rocky gauntlets that went up to his elbows.

"They're the personal guard of the Blue Spirit," Jadan said angrily. "There are five of them, but they usually run alone. There is that red one, the purple one there on his left, a green one and a blank one. As you could've guessed, the one in the middle in the Blue Spirit," he growled out.

Kisame nodded acutely before smiling, showing his shark teeth, "Are they strong?"

Jadan grudgingly nodded. "On a one on one, I could take any of em, but they ambushed me here before I could get to the front and help out. Clever bastards. I would've thought the beating I gave him the last time we met would we warning enough not to harm any of my people again," he rolled his shoulders, "Guess I'll just have to do it again!"

Jadan jumped up and smashed his fist into the ground, creating a wave of force that cracked the ground on its way to the three masked individuals. The trio jumped up into the air, avoiding the underground attack as blocks of earth shot up from where they once were.

Before he blasted off Jadan angrily said, "The Blue Spirit is mine."

In a dead sprint Jadan shot his hands up, and the earth met his command and rocketed him right into The Blue Spirit's stomach. Jadan went feet first, and stomped at the man he hated the most. The stomps impacted The Blue Spirit's forearms with dull thuds, but they shot him back down to earth. In a graceful move, the masked man flipped backwards, and crouch landed back to the ground, looking no worse for wear.

Jadan came down on him like a wrathful wrecking, his fists clasped together into an overhead hammer blow of stone. The Blue Spirit unsheathed his two swords in a flash of metal and crossed them overhead. Jadan swung down onto the swords.

**CLANG**

Jadan came down like a missle, and the ground underneath them both cratered and cracked under the superhuman strength. But, The Blue Spirit was undeterred. He stood firm against Jadan's strength, the only sign he was the least affected was the slight tremor in his arms.

Jadan pressed down onto The Blue Spirit as hard as he could, and looked into his face. "You got lucky the last time we met, but now I'll make sure to take that mask of yours."

The masked man began to push back, until the two men were at a stalemate of strength. Veins bulged in Jadan's arms, and he flexed his strength, trying to get the upper hand. His eyes turned a darker green, and the ground beneath him began to crumble underneath his feet. But they were stuck in a stalemate.

The Blue Spirit leaned in and whispered, "If you want my mask, then come and take it."

Jadan growled angrily and threw a head-butt that connected, disengaging the two of them from their battle of strength.

Jadan shook his head to clear away the pain, before he rushed back in. He was going to pulverize this prick, and that was a promise.

While, Jadan fought The Blue Spirit, Kisame was stuck with the two lackeys. He smirked, and set Samehada on his shoulder. "So, you two got cool names like that other one?"

He only received the sound of swords being unsheathed as an answer.

He chuckled and pointed Samehada at the two men, "I hope you don't die too quickly. I have this bad habit of playing with my food."

The two Onis just ran at him, weapons poised to cut him to ribbons.


	11. Chapter 11: Lesson Learned

Honestly, I apologize for taking so dang log and probably losing all of the people that liked this one with how long it took me to update this. I mean, I just hit a big wall and it didn't help that I lacked the time to actually focus on it because of school and everything. But now, I am on break so I have all the time in the world to write, and that is what I will be doing. So rest assured that I will update my fics. Most of them. The ones I can write for at least. Question, how does one go about putting a pole up? Cuz I have multiple ideas for a new fic, but I wanna see which one you guys would like most to see.

* * *

Kisame grinned viciously, and slammed Samehada into the stone ground, destroying it and planting Samehada into it, and opened his mouth to release a huge wave of water. The water shot out of his mouth in gallons, and it quickly pooled in the area they were all fighting in. Everyone stopped for a moment at feeling the water on their feet, and looked to him.

He shrugged while grabbing Samehada, loosening the bandages on it, "Not all of us can create our elements out of nothing or literally live on theirs, now can we?"

He got three stoic stares, which he felt seemed a bit irritated behind their masks, and one from Jadan that was clearly irritated before he rolled his eyes, and dashed at his opponent with a splash of water.

Kisame heard the slight splashing of feet, and refocused. He let the bandages loosen more on Samehada, letting its dark blue scales flex a bit. He wondered…

He swung Samehada upwards, and to his pleasant surprise, the water moved in accordance to him. The slash of water split the two masked individuals up, one went left and the other went right, and Kisame when after the one to his right. He dashed at the man, and threw a heavy downwards blow with Samehada that was blocked, but it destroyed the two swords that tried to defend against it. The masked man was shocked for a moment, and Kisame took advantage of it, and vertically swung upwards.

The swift swing with Samehada's scales exposed didn't vertically halve the man like one would've thought. Kisame instead felt the scales on Samehada dig into the skin of the man, and then shred its way up. In a moment the unsuspecting man was shredded vertically and his blood filled the air around them. Muscle and tissue was effortlessly tore through and bones gave way easily and were broken from the raw strength behind Kisame's attack.

Kisame pulled Samehada back and swung it horizontally at the man's midsection with both hands gripped securely around the skull tipped handle.

**WHAM! CRACK!**

Ribs were destroyed with a sickening crack as the body on the end of his sword was blasted off of it boneless like a baseball off the end of a bat. The body flew end over end until its trip was brutally ended by a wall, which was crushed under the impact of it. The bloody and mangled body was stuck into the wall momentarily until it fell like a puppet who had its strings cut onto the ground with a slight splash.

Kisame felt Samehada shiver and flex its scales in excitement at the kill, and Kisame felt a major sense of disappointment. He expected more of a fight to be honest.

He pointed the dripping with blood and bits of flesh Samehada at the other masked man, letting Samehada's mouth out were it curled into a cruel sneer. Kisame had to give the man credit. He didn't even flinch.

But that wouldn't stop him from killing him just like his partner.

"I hope you put up more of a fight than that guy over there. I'd hate to give Samehada a worthless meal," he said. Wait, he idly wondered, where did that come from? He shrugged it off for later when he wasn't in a fight for his life.

Not sparing a second, Kisame dashed at the man who readied himself as best as he could. With his free hand he lifted it, willing the water beneath his feet to do the same, making several sharks to form and shot his hand out at the man with a vicious grin. His palm turned counter clock wise, fingers curled in, as the shark constructs flew through the air, razor sharp teeth of the shark ready to tear into flesh.

The masked man dipped his shoulder and smoothly slid under the first projectile, letting it fly right above his shoulders and back, and twirled around the second one with expert footwork. He brought his swords up and slashed the third one, destroying it into a spray of water that splashed harmlessly against his mask swords, and that's how he was for the next few as well. Gleaming steel flashed away as the man destroyed the projectiles before they could hit him.

Before the onslaught of sharks even ended, Kisame rushed the man down at rapid speed. He swung Samehada at his head, but, to his surprise, it was swayed under.

At least this one knew how to duck.

The masked man countered with backhanded slash from his double edged sword, but Kisame saw it coming and skirted out of range. The follow up slash from the sword in the other hand forced him to bring Samehada up to block though. The exotic weapon held firm like a brick wall against the sharp blade, but now Kisame was forced onto the defensive due to the swordsman's speed.

He came at him with a multitude of slashes and stabs that Kisame either blocked or swayed out of range of. Kisame had to admit, the guy was good.

But he was better.

Kisame switched Samehada over to his left to black a sweep strike to his legs, and lunged forward right into the man's guard. Kisame's free right hand rocketed forward and latched onto the man's masked face. Kisame heard a grunt of surprise, and smirked at that. He squeezed the mask hard, feeling it crack under his strength, and lifted the man off of the floor.

"**RAHH!"** He yelled loudly as he tilted forward and slammed the man onto the ground. The solid earth gave way like it wasn't even there, and splintered outward from the point of impact throwing up debris. Kisame growled as he released the masked skull. He raised his foot to stamp down onto the man's chest, but he was blasted back by the force of the wave of yellow and red flames. He was sent skidding back, smoking wafting from his arms and face. He growled at being caught off guard like that, and chastised himself mentally. He patted himself down to kill the small fires that smoldered on his person, all while keeping an eye on his slowly getting up opponent.

He slung Samehada onto his shoulder as he watched the man get up with a wary eye. He stumbled a bit, as he felt the earth shake, and he hazarded a glance to see how Jadan was doing. Due to the two fights going on, Kisame had to reckon that he couldn't bring out the big guns like he usually would, and so he was limited just like he himself was. Those techniques that just demolished and ploughed through things like they weren't even there would cause serious damage, but the collateral is what was wanted to be avoided. He saw Jadan stomp his foot and rise both is fists towards the sky to stop a blast of fire. Then, Jadan dug his fingers into the wall and lift it full up off the ground and over his head and shuck it at the Blue Spirit. The slab of stone flew the air like it was shot from a cannon, but Kisame saw the dual swords, what was with these guys and those anyways, come out and the rock slab was cut clean in half with a single slash from one of those swords.

Kisame narrowed his eyes at the swords, and could see that they were, instead of a shining silver, they were a cold black. What could th-

His instincts screamed at him to block, and he drew Samehada up in defense just as a scythe of fire came at him. Samehada chittered and its scales flexed as the energy behind the blast was greedily devoured. Kisame glared at his now standing opponent. Flames ignited from beneath his feet as he performed a front flip at Kisame sending out an arc of flames that evaporated the water on the ground as it traveled. But his opponent wasn't done. As he landed, he spun on his back and twirled his legs sending out more flames his way.

Kisame, seeing this, swept his hand up, bringing along a stream of water that met and canceled out the first vertical arc of fire. He spun in a circle, bring up more of the water around his feet, and shot a hand out. This motion created a jet of water that basted right through the first wave of flames to the second wave, where both elements finally died out.

Kisame squinted his eyes as he tried to look through the steam the opposing elements created. He clicked his tongue in annoyance. This was why he hated fighting firebenders. This shit got annoying fast.

His sharp eyes caught the glinting of metal underneath the light of the moon, and Kisame brought up Samehada in time. He mentally thanked Yue, before glaring hard onto the man who was struggling to push against him and Samehada.

Kisame narrowed his eyes into an even harsher glare, as he held firm like a brick wall against the man. Suddenly the masked man disengaged and flipped backwards away from him, giving himself breathing room.

Kisame, not wanting to give any more breathing room, followed the masked man's retreat. With blurring speed, he was suddenly besides the man with Samehada already bulldozing through the air between them in a heartbeat.

The Oni responded in time, and ducked the swing just in time. The Oni mule kicked back into Kisame's stomach with a thud. With the one foot still in Kisame's sternum, the Oni acrobatically twirled around and swung his other foot towards Kisame's head. Kisame saw the second kick coming though, and blocked it with his forearm. The kick was stopped cold, and Kisame grabbed the man's ankle before he could pull back. With a heavy step, Kisame turned and threw the man away from him. The Oni flew until he connected with the back of his leader, the Blue Spirit.

The Oni impacted with the Blue Spirit's back, and took the both of them away in a tumble of limbs. Jadan, seeing this, wasted no time to get an attack in. The ground shook, as he stomped his foot onto it with a grunt. The ground cracked, and a boulder floated up into the air. Jadan widened his feet, and quickly punched once then twice at the rock, splitting the solid stone into two flying projectiles.

The Blue Spirit was the one to recover first, and pushed his compatriot turned projectile out of the way. Instead of going away himself, he ran towards the rocks. In an acrobatic move, he dived between the two rocks safely and rolled out on the other side. Springing out of his roll, he unsheathed his dual blades and flames sparked off of their tips. With a slash, he sent several blistering red and orange flames at Kisame and Jadan.

Kisame put his shoulder down behind Samehada and ran through the flames, absorbing the chi that fueled them into Samehada. Kisame jumped and twirled in the air, dodging the sweeping arc of flames that came at his feet. As Kisame landed onto the ground in a crouched position, he placed his hand into the water still on the floor, and ushered up a surge of ice that came up and blocked a blast of fire. He heard running come up from behind, and the earth move. He looked up and Jadan was in the air vaulting over his ice wall with two sizeable rocks floating behind him. With a thought, the ice wall changed back to water and fell to the ground. He heard the crash of rocking colliding with the ground and looked up to see Jadan land, slightly panting.

Kisame stepped up next to him and placed Samehada onto his back as they waited for the dust cloud to clear up.

"He's just as tough if not tougher than when I first fought him," Jadan said lowly but not taking his eyes off of the dust cloud he created, wiping at his mouth as he took deep breaths.

Kisame scoffed as they both stared, "He is just another useless Fire Nation soldier with a cool mask like the other ones."

Jadan opened his mouth to correct Kisame, but before they could, he heard a familiar crackle. His eyes widened is alarm. He knew that sound! He looked down at his feet as the water moved around them.

"Kisame! Get rid of the water now!" He yelled already in motion himself.

Kisame was given no time to respond. He may be fast, but he was not as fast as lightning itself.

Flashes of intense blue lashed out, as arcs of electricity surged through the water in an instant.

"**AAAHHH!**"

Dual screams of pain rang out from them, as raw unfiltered electricity travelled through their bodies. It only lasted a few seconds but that was enough.

When the electricity stopped, the two men dropped boneless. It was a testament to their strength that they only fell to their knees and not flat out unconscious with how many volts ran through their systems.

Panting and wincing on his knees, Kisame couldn't move a single muscle. Samehada wriggled in his numb hand, as he tried to will himself to clench it and rise onto his feet. He could only look around, and he saw the remaining special masked Fire Nation soldiers move in to Jadan and him.

He saw them both get closer, the Blue Spirit and the one he was combating whose mask looked to be cracked. If Kisame could smirk, he would at that.

They got closer and Kisame saw the blades in their hands shine ominously under the moonlight. They got closer, but Kisame could still not move a single muscle due to the electricity that surged through him courtesy of the Blue Spirit.

He felt the cold metal under his chin, and his head was forced upward to stare at the masked individual. The second blade was pressed beside his neck, and he could guess that Jadan was in a similar position as he was.

No!

He couldn't, wouldn't die here! He could feel the anger in his blood, in his bones at the thought of dying so pitifully. He wouldn't dare accept this. He had a mission to accomplish. He had people counting on him!

He moved his eyes up into the sky, and could see the moon in all her luminescent glory.

The blade swung down towards his neck.

The moon shined bright to his eyes, and he was forced to blink.

When he opened his eyes, and he realized his head was still on his shoulders, he looked around. Everything was moving so slow, like time itself was slowed to a crawl. How could-

"It is because I have slowed time in this area, Kisame," A deep masculine voice intoned.

He knew that voice.

He looked back up, but instead of seeing the moon, he saw La.

La crossed his arms across his wide chest and spoke. "How disappointing," he said. As he floated around Kisame's paralyzed form and the slowed down forms of the others. "To think that the one I had chosen specifically, and was prepared to go to great lengths to ensure the survival of the world itself, would be forced to his _knees _in such a pitiful manner. Honestly," La waved his hand airily towards the Blue Spirit. "The, as you call him, "Blue Spirit", is not even one of great power yet here you are. Defeated and ready to be put down like a diseased dog!"

Kisame snarled in anger at the accusation and his anger skyrocketed. "I have **not **accepted any kind of defeat!"

La scowled and glowed a deep blue. "You have still lost. You are **weak**! You, who wears the visage of a shark, are not ready to swim with the big fish! You think you are powerful? You think you are strong? Well look at where you are! With a sword coming at your neck and with no way to defend yourself. You have all the tools to become something more, yet you do not use them. Instead you allow yourself to play with your prey and allow such insignificant vile things such as arrogance invade your thoughts!"

Kisame snarled in anger, and bared his serrated teeth. "I do not let arrogance control me! I am the master of my body and mind!" He growled and he felt his muscles twitch in anger. "I am confident in my strength because I have broken my own bones thrice over and spilled blood in order to get where I am at! You talk about how weak I am, well speak for yourself!" He bit back.

La's eyes exploded into rays of dark blue light and symbols appeared all on his skin in deep blue ink as he got in Kisame's face. "**IT IS NOT ENOUGH, BOY! **The first time you fought someone that could run with you, you barely scrapped by on your own power. This time, you are on your knees unable to defend yourself from your impending doom! You think that my brothers and sisters and I are the only ones choosing worthy mortals? Where do you think we got the idea from, hmm?" He asked him.

Kisame held his tongue as he had no answer.

"The one ready to behead your companion, he does not wear the mask for just show. **He **is the chosen of the trickster spirit himself. The fact your companion is able to combat him to such a degree shows just how powerful he is, and just how much you are not."

"Then WHAT?!" Kisame yelled back. "What would you have me do, o wise Spirit?!"

La narrowed his eyes at Kisame. "Do not become complacent with your current level of power. There are far bigger fish in this sea than you little shayu." La started to float away and dissipate into dark blue particles of energy. "Blessed be that friend of yours, for she was the one who persuaded me to do this. Thank her the next time you stare at the sky and see her form shine bright for all to see." Suddenly his face dropped and he looked the thousands of years he had existed for at that moment. "I know I failed my greatest companion in her most crucial time of need. Because I became _complacent _she perished for it. Due to my _arrogance, _I believed no mere mortal would have the gall to harm us, yet one did, and now she is gone for all eternity. The Moon I knew is no more, and it is all my fault." La stared at Kisame deep in his eyes. "Do not make the same mistake I did little shayu, and let your most precious companion go. Keep her safe and keep her close. For she will do the same to you. Succeed where I have failed."

With that, La finally dissipated back to wherever he came from and time resumed back to normal.

Kisame felt the muscled in his neck unclench, and he swiftly swung his head and bit down on the blade with his sharp teeth before it could reach his neck. he bit down with all his might, and the weapon shattered into shards of metal that Kisame spat the shocked masked man.

In the next moment an ostrich horse barreled into the body of the masked individual, and began pecking him into the ground with its sharp beak. The Blue Spirit looked at the sudden commotion and was caught off guard by the whip of water that grabbed his neck. The whip tensed and threw him into the far wall with a loud crack. It didn't end there as the water that splashed him into the wall then froze him there with no way out.

"Kisame!" He heard yelled out.

He spit out the sword he had in his mouth and blinked owlishly at what just happened.

He turned his head to see Ulva hop off an ostrich horse and grab him under his shoulders with a grunt. She threw his arm over her shoulder and grabbed Samehada with her free hand and staggered back towards another ostrich horse that stood next to her own.

"C'mon ya big blue baby. Up ya go," She muttered as she forced his still paralyzed body onto the animal. He limply fell onto the horse, and Ulva scratched her head before brightening with only what he could assume was an idea. A quick few seconds later, he was now tied down to an ostrich horse.

Ulva strapped Kisame's huge sword down to the side of the ostrich horse with the straps that were there, and moved back to her own. She hopped up and threw one leg over its side, and looked at the chaos she had wrought.

The extra ostrich horse had long ended poking holes in the masked soldier it bulldozed and was now lowering itself for a recovering Jadan to hop on. She clicked her tongue, like Juya showed her before she went off on her own, and galloped up to meet Jadan.

He was fully on his mount when she saddled up next to him, and she saw his wince, but didn't address it. They needed to get out of here, and fast. She looked back at the Blue Spirit whose masked face was turned in her direction staring at her eerily. She noticed the steam rising from the ice she encased him in, and knew it wouldn't hold him for that long.

With this in mind, she turned to Jadan and yelled, "We've got to go. We've got to get out of here!"

Jadan shook his head negative and winced once more at the sudden movement. "No, I can't leave my people here to be slaughtered!"

Ulva scowled. "We don't have time for this and your hero bullshit! Your mom has already started evacuating everyone she could. She told me to get you two blockheads and leave. Now!"

She saw him open his mouth to say another thing against her, but she was having none of it. She quickly bent some of the water on the ground, probably from Kisame now that she thought about it, and aimed for his back. The water connected, and in his weakened state, Jadan could do nothing against it. He was forced to lean on the horse with a grunt, but Ulva wasn't done there. She bent the remaining water against his ankles and hands, essentially cuffing him to the ostrich horse.

Conjuring up another whip of water, she shipped the ostrich horses behind to make it go. The move was effective, and the animal blasted off forward. She whistled sharply, and the two ostrich horses next to her moved just as quick to follow it.

They got farther and farther away from the Rebel base, and continued on their mission without one look back. Mainly because two of them physically couldn't look back and Ulva had to steer their mounts in the right directions.

Though if they would have looked back, they might've noticed a giant white creature land inside of the burning base and three people hop off.


End file.
